


you don't caress

by lunnessey



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Clary & Simon become friends and hate every moment of it, Alec sighs a lot, F/F, Izzy and Jace are pro fighters, M/M, Magnus and Raphael are oddly benevolent criminals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-03 05:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6597805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunnessey/pseuds/lunnessey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec becomes a vigilante hero totally by accident. It begins when he meets a rather sparkly thief-slash-conman and becomes unwilling partners with this irritating redhead who keeps breaking into police stations. Things kind of snowball from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whenever I say ‘the stranger’, ‘the Vigilante’ or anything of the like in this chapter, I mean Alec. What can I say? He’s a man of mystery.

**prologue.**

The Lightwood-Wayland family gets into Mixed Martial Arts like this:

Before Jace grew up to be golden and strong, a perfect champion, he was once nothing more than a scared kid. Worse, a scared kid who was still adjusting to his relatively new life with his adopted family. While Jace, Isabelle and Alec always had one another to lean on, and on another level, they had Max, they lacked a strong parental support system. Maryse and Robert Lightwood had only two modes of parenting; being overbearingly strict, or completely absent. Sometimes they managed both at once.

Alec, while being only one grade above Jace and three above Izzy, took his position as eldest child very seriously. He considered himself wholly responsible for his younger, more outspoken siblings. At parties, Izzy often told the story of parent-teacher conferences when Jace was in the seventh grade. How his teacher had looked on in complete befuddlement as Alec, an eighth grade student at the very same school, showed up in slacks and a tie, shook the teacher’s hand, and took up the position of Jace’s guardian.

When the teacher asked, “Where are your parents?” Alec had reportedly replied, “Never mind that. Let’s talk about Jace’s last math test.”

Jace had trouble focusing on academics, and around that time had started skipping classes and picking fights with neighborhood kids. He and Alec had many heated arguments over Jace staying out of trouble while Alec iced his latest black eye or bruised knuckles. Jace claimed to Alec that fighting was the only thing that made him feel better, and would he deprive his own brother of his only pleasure in life? Alec said that he would not. He would also not see his own brother get arrested. An old family friend, Hodge Starkweather, happened to teach Muay Thai at a gym nearby. Alec made a call, and the rest was history.

Fighting was the first thing Jace ever really felt he was good at. Along with Muay Thai, he picked up Brazilian jiu-jitsu and kickboxing lessons, and where one sibling went, the other two naturally followed. They may have started fighting because of Jace, but that wasn’t to say that Alec and Izzy didn’t enjoy it or excel at it in their own right. Hodge marveled aloud--when the cocky little brats weren’t around to hear--at the chance of that much talent landing in one family.

It would be years before he would find out the hard way that it wasn’t only ‘talent’, but pure unwillingness to give up that drove the Lightwoods to fight.

-

**las vegas. summer 2015.**

Alec became a vigilante completely by accident. Really, if the fault could be attributed to anyone, it was Izzy. The situation was this: when Isabelle turned eighteen and graduated high school she, like Jace, declared her intentions to pursue MMA as a career and become a champion. On a base level, Alec was happy for her. Izzy had been slaying the competition in junior MMA competitions for years. He had no doubt that she had the skill and drive necessary to do the same in the big leagues. Hodge, being of a similar mindset, was also pleased. Jace, already a champion himself following his meteoric rise to success in the sport, was thrilled as well.

Maryse and Robert Lightwood were not thrilled.

The Lightwoods were both high-ranking law enforcement agents in the city of Las Vegas. What organization they were actually employed under, none of their children had a clue. They had only ever been told that all information regarding Maryse and Robert’s careers was “highly confidential.”

Jace had received support from their parents from the moment he went pro and started winning matches. It was Vegas, and Maryse and Robert’s employers were high profile players in the city, so naturally they followed MMA. Mixed Martial Arts might as well be the official sport of the city. Jace’s success afforded the Lightwoods a certain level of prestige and Izzy had plans to win her parent’s approval the same way. Maryse, being of the opinion that Izzy was not thinking seriously enough about her future, did not agree with her plan. Surprising absolutely no one, Izzy was going to do it anyway.

That meant that Alec was currently the only child in the family who was paying any heed to his parent’s wishes. He was majoring in political science at University of Nevada Las Vegas with plans to attend law school afterwards.

The evening that everything first began to change, Alec was leaving the UNLV library, where he had spent the day getting a head start on a paper due in his macroeconomics class the following week. As if it weren’t bad enough that he had spent the entire day thinking about macroeconomics, Alec’s head was pounding, he was tired, and it was a good twenty-minute walk home. The buses had already stopped running for the night and Alec had no money on him to pay for a taxi.

Alec did not actually like poli-sci. He did not care for economics, either macro or micro. He despised his Western Civilization class and spent his Modern Political Thought lectures wishing he was in the gym. Alec often suspected he would also not enjoy law school. What Alec enjoyed was beating the crap out of the heavy bag in Hodge’s studio, long runs to work off stress, and cooking mountains of French toast in the morning whenever he, Izzy, and Jace were all home. He liked spending time with Max and wasting lazy days ridiculing bad action movies with his siblings.

Unfortunately, Alec’s future did not have much to do with what he liked or didn’t like. It was about what had to be done.

Alec was so deep in thought about his future and his duties that he almost walked right past the alleyway. Had it not been an unusually quiet night, he probably would have. He was perhaps ten blocks out from his house when he heard from down a narrow lane between two buildings, _“Get away from me.”_ The woman sounded young, maybe only as old as Alec. She also sounded extremely scared.

Alec slowed his steps.

“How ‘bout you just shut the fuck up and hand over your phone, your purse, and that big rock on your finger?” Said a male voice.

Then another. “You don’t want any trouble, bitch. Never know what could happen to a pretty girl like you out all alone on a night like this.”

Alec briefly pictured Izzy in the same situation as this woman, alone in an alley with two creeps threatening her, calling her ‘bitch.’ She would probably kick both of their asses and break a dozen bones between the pair of them. More than likely, though, this girl didn’t live to fight like Izzy did.

Alec stopped, and quietly set his bag down at the mouth of the alleyway. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up and crept toward the three figures standing half way down the lane on silent feet.

It was one of the men that noticed him first. A big guy, about as tall as Alec. The other one was smaller, and infinitely more concerning, as Alec noticed the knife he held in his right hand. The girl, of short stature with corkscrew curly hair, also seemed more concerned about the knife than anything else.

The big man opened his mouth in a sneer. What he was going to say, Alec would never find out. He suspected that the words wouldn’t be worth the oxygen they would waste, anyhow.

Alec cracked the bigger man in the bridge of the nose and dodged the meaty fist that lashed out in automatic defense. He moved inside the man’s guard with ease and caught him in the stomach, once, twice, three times. The goon grunted in pain, and swung for Alec again wildly. Alec blocked it with a forearm, then grabbed the man’s arm and leveraged him over his shoulder. It was a clean, textbook slam. He hit the ground with serious force.

“What the fuck?” Said the guy with the knife. He approached Alec, fast, switchblade held in front of him. “Who the fuck are you?” “Stupid question to ask,” Alec observed. His identity was about to be the least of this idiot’s problems. The man struck out with his switchblade, and Alec jerked back, slamming the man’s outstretched arm down and away from him and following up with a hard kick to the stomach. The man wheezed, the breath knocked out of him, and Alec promptly jerked the mugger’s arm behind him, prying the knife from his shocked fingers. He kicked the soft side of the man’s knee and he went unsteadily onto his knees.

Alec moved to stand between the two and the woman they had been attempting to rob. The bigger guy struggled to his feet, eyes wide.

“Leave,” Alec said shortly. Within ten seconds, the smaller mugger scrambled to his feet as well, and the pair ran for the other end of the alley. Alec’s lip curled as he watched them go. Scum like that always ran just as soon as they no longer had the obvious advantage.

The girl with curly hair also watched Alec with wide eyes. She was visibly shaking.

“Th-thank you?” She said, sounding startled. “Oh my god, that was amazing.”

“Uh,” Said Alec brilliantly. “Don’t mention it. You okay?”

“Yes,” The girl said slowly.

Alec walked her out to the street and waited while the woman hailed a cab and got into it. Twice more she tried to thank him, and he began to feel seriously awkward. The moment the cab drove off, he turned and ran.

-

The stopped mugging, however small an act it seemed at the time, was one of three important things that happened in the city that week. The second thing involved thief and conman extraordinaire Magnus Bane, the glitteriest and most accomplished cat burglar in the city of Las Vegas—and that was saying quite a lot.

The important thing about Magnus Bane was that though he was loath to admit it, he had a conscience. He was one of the few men in Vegas who had staunchly and openly opposed the Circle and lived to tell about it. The Circle was one of the largest and most amoral crime organizations in all of Vegas. Again, that was saying quite a lot. People like Magnus flocked to the city due to it’s amoral nature, but the Circle took it to a whole other level. Mostly Magnus just avoided the Circle wherever he could. Not minding one’s own business was the quickest way to end up dead in the business he was in, after all.

There were certain things, however, that Magnus would not stand for. The kidnapping of a local club owner’s family after his refusal to comply with the Circle’s demands was one such thing. Magnus didn’t know the man well, but as far as club owner’s in Vegas went, he was fairly honorable. His club was right down the street from Magnus’s apartment. He was known for having no tolerance for harassment in his establishment. The man’s wife was a doctor, and he had several small children. And now they were to be harmed, for the unforgivable crime of their father and husband being a decent man.

For Magnus, it was all too easy to find out where the family was being held. There was hardly anything that went on in the city that his informants didn’t know about. It was even easier to use his particular skill set to infiltrate the building. Magnus could have gone the rest of his life without laying eyes on what happened inside. He had arrived much too late, and the honourable club owner’s young daughter had been tortured and blinded.

Due to the timely arrival of the police, everyone left alive that night. Magnus had been very careful to find out which cops were on shift before he called. The city police force may not have been in the Circle’s pocket as they had once been, but that didn’t mean they were any better.

Disgusted and heartsick for the little girl as he was, Magnus Bane made a promise to himself that night. He would never let the Circle harm innocent people in his city again. He was going to take down Valentine Morgenstern and his entire organization.

It was only a day later that Magnus heard about two of the local goons getting soundly thrashed by a hooded mystery man during an attempted mugging. With all that was going on, he hardly gave it a second thought.

The third and final important event to transpire that week was this: an art student named Clary Fray decided to snoop through her mother’s boyfriend’s files. The act seemed innocuous enough on its own, and likely nothing would have happened had it been anyone else than Clary Fray doing the snooping.

Clary’s mom, Jocelyn, was described by her best friend Simon as “kind of the neighborhood badass.” Neighborly disputes, local thefts, lurking loan sharks, and playground bullying were all handled quietly and effectively by Jocelyn. She was their block’s very own guardian angel. Consequently, Clary had grown up with a very strong moral compass. Clary, along with Simon, also had a penchant for getting into enormous amounts of trouble. Every cop on the local beat knew them by name, and it wasn’t just because Jocelyn’s boyfriend Luke was their sergeant.

Clary had heard the grim tale of the family held hostage by mobsters on the news, and had been brought to tears by the story of the blinded young daughter. Clary knew that Luke was involved in the case, and had only meant to check and see if any progress had been made. She thought that the little girl deserved justice to be dealt on her behalf. If “checking” on the case involved Clary and Simon breaking into Luke’s office at the station, then that was neither here nor there.

Clary and Simon had the distinct advantage of every police officer at the station being used to them hanging around Luke’s office all of the time. Getting into his office was almost too easy, and “checking” on the case quickly turned into reading the file cover to cover.

“Clary,” Simon said faux-calmly, watching the door. “I don’t mean to rush you here, okay, but if we get caught reading Luke’s files he’s gonna freaking flip.”

“I know he is,” Clary said distractedly. “Simon, listen to this. The club owner told the cops that the mobster guys were looking for a book they thought he had. Some kind of ledger. The guy said that the ledger was hidden in ‘the Mortal Cup’, which he described as a ‘large glass chalice ringed in gold.’” She looked up at Simon intently. “What does that sound like to you?”

“That,” Simon said, then trailed off. “That sounds like that statue at the UNLV library?”

As they were both students at UNLV, with Simon studying business administration and Clary going for a bachelor of arts, the two of them met there several times a week. One of their favorite places to sit was at the edge of the fountain in the back courtyard that was topped by a large, rather unusual statue of a golden chalice.

“I guess we should tell Luke.” Clary said after a pause. She did not sound remotely enthused about the idea.

Simon scoffed. “Yeah, then we would also have to tell him we broke into his office to read his open case files.”

“Okay, or, we could go check it out ourselves,” Clary said, looking considerably more excited.

“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Simon said. Then, “Let’s go.”

The two grinned at each other and scrambled out the door, making sure to leave everything just as they had found it. Breaking into his office was one of the few things Luke had yet to catch them doing, and the two of them were determined to keep it that way.

It was a Thursday afternoon, and the library was almost empty. Most students were either still stuck in class or making their way home to get their work done and get ready for the night. Thirsty Thursday in Las Vegas was nothing to scoff at. The rest of the library being abandoned, Simon and Clary were startled to note three men occupying their usual spot in front of the fountain.

“Clary,” Simon hissed, and she simply nodded. They had both noticed immediately that the three men at the fountain didn’t look like students. All three of them were wearing fitted black suits and sunglasses, and had no books in hand. They were examining the fountain, looking rather interested in the chalice perched on top.

Before Clary and Simon could decide what to do, the men noticed them.

“Can we help you kids with something?” The man who spoke managed to sound pleasant without giving the impression of being pleasant at all. He sounded more threatening than anything else.

“No, just out here enjoying the weather,” Clary said blithely. She became extremely aware of the fact that she and Simon also weren’t carrying any books.

“You should go enjoy the weather someplace else.” Another one of the men said, sounding less pleasant.

“Why?” Clary said hotly, not moving. “The library is open to anyone.”

“Not today it’s not.” The man answered.

Simon grabbed Clary’s arm and tried to subtly tug her backwards. She refused to move, and Simon sighed. He would prefer to be just about anywhere else right now, but there was no way he would be leaving without Clary.

“Maybe we should sit inside today,” Simon said cautiously.

The third man, who was tall and going bald, smiled nastily. “Yeah, listen to your little pussy boyfriend and run away now.”

“Don’t call him that,” Clary said fiercely.

“You going to stop me, little girl?” The man said, taking a step forward.

Just then a voice from behind Clary and Simon said, “Oh my god, again? You know what? Fine.”

They turned to see a tall, scowling young man in a dark sweater with a bunch of books tucked under his arm. He deposited his books carefully on a picnic table and began to roll up the sleeves of his sweater.

“Who the fuck are you?” The balding man said, stalking forward again.

“Stupid. Question.” The scowling stranger said venomously.

Simon looked at Clary and raised his eyebrows as if to say, _what’s up with this guy?_ She raised her palms and shook her head. _Don’t ask me_. Personally, Clary thought it was quite strange that the guy had walked up behind them without anyone noticing him.

“The fuck did you say?” The balding man said menacingly, removing his sunglasses. He walked right up to the stranger and fisted a hand in the front of his sweater. “Let’s try that again. Who. The fuck. Are you?”

The stranger glanced down at the hand clutching his shirt. He looked supremely unconcerned. It was quite hard not to notice how he towered over the balding man, who was the tallest of the three suits. The man had to be at least six foot three. He did not bother answering the balding man’s question, choosing instead to slam his forehead into the man’s nose with considerable force. The suit staggered back, blood now pouring from his nose.

“Did you just headbutt me?” The man said disbelievingly.

“Do you speak exclusively in questions?” The stranger asked in return. The other two suits were advancing toward him now, but he still did not appear very worried. “You two should get out of here.” He said, and it took Clary a moment to realize that he was talking to her and Simon.

“Oh yeah, we’ll just leave you here alone with these three guys,” Clary said sarcastically.

The guy looked at her oddly. “Yeah. You should.”

The moment he looked away, one of the suits swung for him. The stranger swiftly ducked the hit, but caught another suit’s punch right in his jaw. The tall stranger did not appear to even notice, despite the blood trickling from his lip. He dodged the next punch and drove the suited man back with a kick that landed solidly in his ribs.

Simon and Clary noticed then that the balding man, his nose still bleeding, had circled around rather close to them. He had his back turned, wholly focused on the whirlwind that was the strange man. Clary exchanged a look with Simon. As per usual, they didn’t have to say a word. Clary crept forward and kicked the man hard in the side of the knee, tripping him once he stumbled. Caught by surprise, the man tumbled backward and Simon snaked an arm around his throat, choking him. The man flailed wildly, trying to scratch at Simon’s arms and face. Clary grabbed his arms, wrestling to hold them still until the man went limp and sank to the ground.

A splash caught their attention, and Clary looked up to find that one suited henchman was on the ground, clutching an arm to his chest and cringing in pain. It appeared that the tall stranger had just kicked the last one backward into the fountain. He thrashed toward the edge, spluttering. The tall stranger pulled the henchman up by the collar of his shirt and pushed him toward his injured companions.

“Get out,” The stranger said. It was not a request, and the three henchman left quickly, spitting curses and threats as they went.

“We’ll find out who you are. We’ll fucking see you soon, pal,” Were the henchman’s parting words. The stranger appeared to ignore them completely.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” The guy asked Simon suspiciously. It took Simon a moment to realize he meant choking the man out.

“This guy I used to date,” Simon said sheepishly. “He uh, well he got in a lot of fights. The real question is where did _you_ learn to do _that_?”

The stranger shrugged. Clary was beginning to get the feeling that he always dodged questions like this. It was kind of annoying. “Most people would leave if three trained guys started threatening them,” He said, walking over to the picnic table and gathering up his books. He did not sound very impressed by the fact that they had stayed.

“Were you here for the cup?” Clary blurted before she could stop herself.

The guy turned and squinted at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Were you not wondering what those guys were up to?” Clary asked incredulously. The guy shrugged.

“So you just always fight strangers at the library,” Simon said, eyebrows raised.

“I came here to study, because I am a student here,” The guy said defensively. “I just happened upon two dumbasses about to get hurt. That’s my thing, apparently.” He turned to leave, and then stopped. He pointed a finger at Simon and Clary. It was not as threatening a gesture as it should have been, even considering that they just watched him drop two grown men like it was nothing. Clary and Simon as a general rule were not easily intimidated. “Listen, you didn’t see anything. You never met me.” The stranger said seriously.

Simon raised his eyebrows further. Clary snorted impolitely. Simon said, “Yeah, okay buddy.”

The guy scowled, much like he had been when they first saw him. “I’m serious.”

“If you are curious about what those guys were up to, you should read up on the hostage situation that happened here this week.” Clary said on an impulse. “The city is in trouble. Somebody like you could help.”

That surprised the frown off of the guy’s face. He nodded slowly, and then turned and swiftly left the courtyard.

“Did you notice that he is completely silent?” Simon said, squinting after him. “Normally the door to the library is creaky as shit. He just opened it, and like, nothing. Neither us or those guys noticed the dude was even here until he said something. He’s like a ninja.”

Clary shook her head in disbelief. “Yeah. Oh my god, that was crazy. Hey, those guys definitely didn’t find the ledger here.” She pointed out. Simon and Clary quickly looked around the fountain and the statue, but absolutely nothing looked out of the ordinary. They left pretty quickly, just in case the men in suits decided to come back. It was unlikely that a stranger would show up and save them a second time.

Clary wasn’t expecting the stranger to actually take her words to heart.

Eavesdropping on one of Luke’s phone calls, Clary found out that the hostage incident was being transferred from Luke’s office to another precinct. He had sounded pretty frustrated about it. Apparently, the other precinct had discovered a new lead involving “sensitive information” which they were unwilling to share with just anyone. Consequently, two nights after the incident at the library, Clary found herself giving a bullshit story about sorting out an erroneous ticket and wandering around the precinct now responsible for the case.

“This is such a bad idea, this is _such_ a bad idea,” Clary murmured under her breath, heading toward where she had been instructed to sort out her fictional ticket and then turning down an empty hallway. She stopped when she heard a shout come from the way she came. The voice cut off suddenly, like they had been silenced. Clary backed slowly down the hall, and ducked into a dark office branching out from the hallway.

She wasn’t expecting someone to already be hiding in the office. She definitely wasn’t expecting to know them.

“What are you doing here?” The stranger from the library hissed.

“What are _you_ doing here!” Clary whisper-shouted.

He scowled. Clary was starting to think that it was his default expression. “Following your advice.”

“How did you know to come here?” Clary whispered. The case had only just been transferred to this precinct, and it was insider police information.

The stranger looked away. “I uh, I have my ways.”

Clary glared at him. “The way you dodge questions is seriously aggravating.”

The stranger gave her a dirty look and opened his mouth to say something undoubtedly rude, but just then there was a bang and another shout from the hallway. Without a word, he grabbed Clary’s sleeve and tugged her away from the doorway into the shadows. There was just enough light in the hall that the two of them could see the figure that walked in front of the doorway. With a jolt, Clary realized she knew him as well. In fact, they both did.

It was the balding man from the library. His eyes were blacked and his nose swollen from the stranger’s headbutt and there were bruises visible above the collar of his shirt, courtesy of Simon. He was trailed by more henchman in black suits, seven in total.

“We need to get out of here.” The stranger said, so quietly that the words were hardly audible. Clary just nodded.

The hallway was clearly not a feasible escape method, and the suits would likely have people waiting by the front door. Clary and the stranger both looked around the room for a minute, looking for a solution. Clary tapped the stranger’s arm, and went he looked at her, she pointed up. They both examined the skylight for a minute, then the stranger nodded jerkily. He boosted Clary up, and luckily he was tall enough to make up for her own lack of height. The precinct was housed in a rather old building, and the old skylight, when unlatched, lifted right upward. Clary pulled her up and out onto the roof then reached down a hand for the stranger. He shook his head and motioned for her to move back. Clary just stared at him, frustrated, and he waved her away more urgently. She threw up her hands and moved, cursing the need for silence. The guy took a running head start and jumped, grabbing on to the edge of the skylight with both hands. He pulled himself up and clambered out onto the roof, motioning for Clary to follow him. There was a big window with a ledge jutting out on the other side of the building. The stranger carefully made his way down, using the ledge as a foot and hand hold and then waited as Clary did the same, looking ready to catch her at a moment’s notice.

The guy was one of the most unfriendly people Clary had ever met, but he seemed to have an almost compulsive need to look after people. Clary did not understand him at all.

“Simon’s waiting on the next street,” Clary said quietly, once they had reached the ground. When the guy looked at her blankly she added, “From the library.”

The guy heaved a sigh. “So you two are just partners in stupid, huh?”

“You know, you’re really dramatic,” Clary observed. The guy huffed, plainly offended.

When Clary opened the car door, Simon jumped about two feet in the air. He blurted out, “Oh my god, Clary, I thought you were dead,” She stared at him, surprised. He held up his phone. “I called you like thirty times.”

“That’s healthy,” The stranger said flatly, opening the door and getting into the backseat. “No codependency issues there.” Simon jerked and hit his head on the window, twisting wildly to stare at the stranger. Clary dug out her phone and found that she did indeed have thirty-two missed calls from Simon.

“What is he doing here?” Simon said rather loudly, even as he put the car in drive and hit the gas.

“He was checking out the new lead too,” Clary said, then turned to address the tall, sulking figure in the back. “Hey, what’s your name? You know that I’m Clary, and he’s Simon, but we don’t know who you are.”

The stranger glared at her for a long moment as though he was considering not answering. Then, “Alec.”

Satisfied, Clary turned back around and informed Simon, “The same guys in the suits were there. I saw the guy you choked out. There was a bunch of them, we had to escape through the roof.”

“The roof?” Simon questioned, shocked. “Aw man, that’s so cool.”

Alec sighed again. Clary didn’t need to look at him to know that he was scowling. “No, not cool.” He said testily. “Who are these guys working for?”

Simon made a thoughtful sound. “Obviously, these are same dudes who kidnapped that family in the first place and are so interested in this ledger. Part of some crime family or something. How we’re going to find out who they actually are though, I have no idea.”

The clear realization that they had possibly encountered the very same men who had blinded that little girl twice in the past week made Clary feel ill. It also made her more determined to figure out what it was they were after and stop them from hurting anybody else.

“I’m not the most concerned with finding out who they are, I don’t think we can do anything about that right now,” Clary said. “We should focus on figuring out who they’re going to hurt next, and preventing it.”

Simon made a sound of agreement and briefly looked at Alec. “You know,” He said. “If you’re going to do this fighting crime thing, you should do it whole-assedly. Instead of just accidentally fighting mob henchman at the library.”

“Whole-assedly,” Clary echoed, amused. Then she processed the rest of what Simon said and added, “He has a point. You’re pretty good at this stuff.”

Alec’s frown had turned thoughtful. “Everything has been an accident so far, though. I don’t know how I would go about finding these situations on purpose.”

“Oh, leave that to Clary,” Simon said wryly. “No one is in the police’s business like her. I promise you that no one you have ever met gets in trouble like Clary here.”

“Said the pot to the kettle,” Clary said, side-eyeing Simon.

“Yeah, I actually kind of doubt that,” Alec muttered, thinking of Izzy and Jace.

Simon just snorted. “Trust me, finding the crime to fight is going to be the easy part.”

As far as orderliness and normality in Alec’s life went, that night marked the beginning of the end. After that is when things _really_ got started.

-

One of Magnus’ arguably less attractive traits—few as his unattractive traits were, let’s be real, he was amazing--was that he was prone to fits of spite. In this particular instance, Magnus felt as though it wasn’t entirely uncalled for. Currently he was breaking into the Pangborn brother’s penthouse apartment. They were loyal Circle members, and had been present the night the little girl had been blinded. Seeing the brother’s smug, sneering faces as they had fled the scene of the crime still rankled.

No convictions had been made so far in connection to the crime. It was highly likely that no arrests would be made, and sooner or later it would be declared a cold case or an enemy of the Circle would take the blame. Magnus had not yet been able to find a weakness he could exploit to take down Valentine. He figured a little breaking and entering to ease his frustrations wouldn’t hurt anyone. Besides the Pangborn brothers, anyway, and that was kind of the point.

So there Magnus was, alone in an alleyway, hooking up his grappling equipment. The plan was to scale the building in order to reach the maintenance level and take the maintenance elevator up to the penthouse. From there it’s a matter of overriding the electronic door locks and making his leisurely way to the safe. Magnus was just attaching the back-up line to his harness when he heard a sound. Later, he would not be able to recall what the sound was that got his attention. He only knew that he looked up and realized that he was no longer alone.

“Oh,” Said Magnus, eyes zeroing in on the dark figure that seemed to materialize in the shadows a mere ten feet away. Magnus couldn’t quite make out their features. Probably male, and he was tall. “Hello.”

The dark shape snorted. “Hi?” The voice was deep and not at all unattractive.

Magnus remained still, just studying the dark figure. His mind, however, was piecing things together at top speed. He recalled the story of the stopped mugging a few weeks prior, and the mutterings around the local bars and backroom poker games lately of ruined schemes and unusually quiet nights. Magnus remembered the article he had read in the newspaper only the week before. A robbery foiled, the perpetrator’s shotgun taken away from him, and everyone in the bank left unharmed. The headline had been ‘VIGILANTE HERO STRIKES AGAIN.’

“The Vigilante, then,” Magnus said lightly, a smile playing around his lips. “I love your work.”

“You do know you’re a criminal,” The Vigilante answered slowly, clearly bemused. “As in you are actively committing a crime right now.”

Magnus laughed. “What, is scaling buildings a crime now?”

“Trespassing is, yeah,” The Vigilante said after a pause. “Um, reckless endangerment, probably.”

“Ah,” Magnus said, and smiled cheekily. “What’s life without a little recklessness?”

“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you,” The Vigilante said long-sufferingly. “I’ve never had the luxury.”

Magnus laughed again. He rather liked this mysterious hero.

“Well, Mr. Vigilante, not all thieves are the same.” Magnus sobered suddenly, dropping his smile. “If it’s a crime you’re looking to stop; I have a tip for you. There’s an assassination planned tonight, of a young, rather idealistic city councilwoman. Orchestrated by the same people who took that family hostage. She’s at the Renaissance hotel for a conference, sixth floor. The councilwoman is named Lydia Branwell.” The Vigilante jerked in surprise at that, and Magnus watched him with interest. The name obviously meant something to him.

“Why her?” The dark figure asked after a moment.

Magnus weighed his words carefully, then said, “She’s made the bold choice of supporting a rather controversial bill being put up before the city next month.”

The Vigilante shifted, looking suddenly rather eager to be on his way. “Good luck,” Magnus said softly, and then the shadowy figure was gone as quickly as he had appeared. Magnus started up the side of the building with renewed enthusiasm. It was now even more important that he got what he came for, and quickly.

The break in went off without a hitch, and Magnus had just located and opened the Pangborn’s safe when he received an update from one of his informants. It read, ‘Not single man for Renaissance. Five.’ Magnus stared at the text in horror. Five assassins rather than one had been sent to take care of Lydia Branwell. This bill must be an even bigger deal than he had previously thought.

“Fuck, oh my god,” Magnus breathed, replacing his target in the safe and shutting the safe. “I possibly just condemned the cute vigilante to death.” He was out the door and on his way to the Renaissance Hotel within moments.

Arriving on the sixth floor of the hotel, Magnus was met with a rather puzzling scene. There was not a soul in sight, and the entire place was silent. Down the hall, there was a single body face down on the carpet. Heart heavy with dread, Magnus carefully approached. He was relieved to find that firstly, they were much too short to be the Vigilante. Secondly, they were bald and male, and therefore not Lydia Branwell. Thirdly, they were not dead, but just unconscious.

“Still, that’s probably a concussion,” Magnus muttered, nudging the prone body with his toe. He left the man where he was, but observed the gun and silencer on the floor beside him. The clip had been removed and the chamber was empty. Magnus began to smile. This Vigilante really was quite something.

Magnus discreetly began to poke around the sixth floor, which was mostly made up of conference rooms and lounges. He found two empty rooms and a back hallway occupied by a single man, holding a revolver. Magnus came up behind him on silent cat burglar’s feet and neatly incapacitated the man, but not before he let out a strangled yell. That was sure to bring everyone within ear shot running, Magnus thought with resignation. Before he could hide, a head poked cautiously around the corner. Magnus startled. He had not even heard the man coming.

The man that came around the corner was tall, very tall. He was dressed in a fitted black leather jacket and black pants with numerous pockets. A black cloth covered most of his face, though bright brown eyes were visible even from where Magnus stood across the hall. A shock of curly dark hair peeked out of the hood of his jacket. The Vigilante, Magnus realized immediately. All of the Circle goons tended to dress exclusively in dark suits.

“What are you doing here?” The Vigilante asked.

“I found out too late that the lovely Miss Branwell has five assassins gunning for her, rather than one,” Magnus admitted.

“Oh, yeah,” The Vigilante said, brows furrowing. “That’s okay.”

Magnus just looked at him for a second. Then he said, “No. No, that is most certainly not okay.”

The Vigilante quirked an eyebrow. Really, Magnus had rarely met someone with such expressive eyebrows. It was quite charming. “Uh, is that all then?” He said.

“No, actually,” Magnus said, sliding a sheathe of papers out of the sleeve of his shimmery black climbing suit. A black bodysuit was a bit of an obvious choice for a cat burglar, but no one looked twice at Magnus on the street. It was Las Vegas, after all. It was rather difficult to raise an eyebrow among the locals. He held out the papers to the Vigilante.

“What’s this?” He asked, taking them gingerly. Magnus resisted the urge to laugh. The man was holding the papers as one might hold an active mine.

“That, dear heart, is a copy of a list of prospective targets.” The Vigilante looked up sharply. Magnus said, “You’re not the only person trying to ensure that what happened to that girl never happens again.”

The man nodded, accepting that, and then he squinted an eye at Magnus skeptically. “’Dear heart?’” Magnus winked at him, and swore that under the black cloth over his face, the young vigilante hero blushed.

“What the hell?” A female voice said, somewhere down the hall. The Vigilante winced.

“That will be Miss Branwell, then,” Magnus guessed.

“Yeah,” The Vigilante said, his voice low.

“Did you happen to take out all five assassins?” Magnus asked quietly, moving further down the hall.

The Vigilante snorted. “No, I took out three. They probably should have sent more than five people for Lydia. Obviously these mob dickheads have never encountered her in person.” Magnus’ eyebrows shot up. The Vigilante glanced toward the main hallway and added, “Five is likely going to become seven if she finds us here.”

Magnus opened the door in front of him, and gestured the Vigilante through. “After you.”

The door opened into a landing with doorways to the service stairway and elevator. Magnus and the Vigilante made their way quickly down the stairs, not willing to risk the elevator. They were on the second floor landing when a door opened somewhere above them.

Magnus flung open the door to the second floor and bodily dragged the Vigilante through after him. Caught off guard, the Vigilante let himself be led around by the arm. Magnus got them safely down to the ground floor and out through the back door.

Alone again in the warm, balmy night, Magnus turned to face the Vigilante and smiled. “Until we meet again.”

He nodded curtly. “Yeah. Uh. Thanks for the list. It’ll help.”

“You’re very welcome.” Magnus said and the two of them went their separate ways, fading into the night without a sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Izzy, Jace....and Raphael.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the comments were so sweet that I decided to go ahead and post this early. Made my day.

“You’re _what_?” Clary asked incredulously, her voice tinny through the phone speaker.

“Taking a vacation.” Alec repeated impatiently, phone clamped between his ear and his shoulder as he packed his bag. “Tonight and tomorrow. I’m busy.”

“You’re busy,” Clary echoed. “Too busy to watch over Vegas on Friday and Saturday night, the craziest nights of the week.”

“Every night is crazy here, and the city got along fine without me before.” Alec pointed out.

“That was before all this political stuff. It’s different now and you know it,” Clary argued.

Alec hummed noncommittally. “Anyway, you can handle it for two days, can’t you? Or are you that useless?”

Clary promptly hung up on him, and Alec smiled vindictively.

“Victory,” He mumbled to himself.

Alec was in an unusually good mood that day. He hadn’t seen Jace and Izzy in weeks, except over Skype calls. The two of them had gone away on their respective training camps in order to prepare for the upcoming fights. Tonight was the first part of the two day event and Alec would not be missing it for anything, city be damned. Jace was fighting tonight, and Alec would be acting as his cornerman. He would then stay the night at a hotel with his siblings and serve as Izzy’s cornerman the next night.

It was going to be Izzy’s first pro fight, and while their parents had informed Isabelle only the day before that they would not be able to stay and watch, Jace and Alec would be there to support her. Maryse and Robert would, however, be at the fights tonight to watch Jace. Alec arrived at the hotel early and checked in. He was the first of the three there, as Jace and Izzy were each busy with weigh-ins and pre-fight preparation. By the time Alec made his way down to the venue, his skin was practically buzzing in anticipation. Both Jace and Izzy had been working hard, and Alec had absolute confidence that they would each bring home a win.     

Tonight would be the first night Alec was not out protecting the city in several weeks. It had been over a month since the little girl was taken hostage and subsequently blinded. Thanks in part to the list Alec had been given after Lydia’s attempted assassination, nothing of the sort had transpired since then.

He wondered whether or not a certain helpful jewel thief would notice his absence tonight, and then pushed the thought from his head. They did not even know each other’s names. That aside, the thief may like the Vigilante, but he probably wouldn’t care for Alec, the introverted poli-sci student.

Alec was torn from his thoughts at the scream of “Alec!” And he was promptly hit with a projectile made of curly dark hair and pure exuberance.

“Izzy,” He greeted, unable to help his smile. Alec lifted his baby sister off of her feet and swung her around as she laughed wildly.

“You’re here,” She said delightedly. “I missed you!” Izzy smacked a big, obnoxious kiss on Alec’s forehead and he made a face, promptly dropping her. “Hey,” She protested, pouting up at him.

“Hey yourself,” Alec glared at her, rubbing at his forehead dramatically even though he was certain that Izzy’s lipstick hadn’t smeared. He had no idea how she did it, but the woman’s makeup was like magic. Alec was certain he was one of the only people alive who had ever seen her makeup looking less than perfect, and that was because they lived together.

Izzy dropped the pout and grabbed Alec’s arm, pulling him through the bustling arena. “We can go see Jace now. He’s in the back already. He’s all hyper though, he’s like a five-year-old,” Izzy sighed.

“Do you know who else is always all hyper like a five-year-old?” Alec mocked, smiling. Izzy made a face at him, which he ignored and then told her, “You. You are all hyper like a five-year-old.” She stuck her tongue out and Alec said “You’re not exactly proving me wrong here.”

They went down a narrow hallway crowded with people rushing back and forth, talking into ear pieces and carrying medical tape and hand wraps. Alec and Izzy navigated it with the ease of two people who had been doing so for years. They found Hodge leaning against a wall, ignoring the mayhem in order to carry on a conversation on his phone. He greeted them with a wave and a smile, only pausing long enough to jerk a thumb at a door next to him and say “He’s in there.”

Izzy promptly kicked the door open and yelled “Jace! He’s here!” Jace jolted like he had been shocked with electricity, obviously startled by his sister’s loudness. He quickly brushed it off and jumped to his feet.

“ _Alec,”_ Jace said, drawing it out so the name sounded as though it had about five syllables. He fell into Alec’s chest in a lazy hug, letting his older brother hold all of his weight. Alec stumbled back a step, letting out an exasperated huff of breath. Jace clung there like a koala for about fifteen seconds while Alec patiently waited him out.

“It’s good to see you too,” He said wryly to the top of Jace’s head.

“Man, I am so pumped for tonight,” Jace said, letting go of Alec and abruptly abandoning his lethargic demeanor. He grabbed Izzy and spun her around, just because he could. _“Izzy,”_ He said, the same way he had said Alec’s name.

“Jace, you saw me twenty minutes ago,” She complained.

“Yeah, so?” Jace retorted. “Before that I hadn’t seen you, either of you, in a month.” He gave his brother and sister a toothy grin, and Izzy visibly softened. She had missed the two of them, and though Alec wasn’t going to say it his siblings knew that he had missed them as well.

“How are things at home?” Izzy asked once the three of them settled down a little.

“Uh,” Said Alec.

He considered what he could say other than, ‘I met a pair of idiots at the library when I accidentally fought a bunch of mobsters after I stopped this girl from getting mugged. Me and the idiots fight crime together now and the stupid newspaper won’t stop writing articles about it. Also, remember Lydia Branwell, that girl Mom was trying to set me up with for a while? A bunch of criminals tried to kill her and I helped stop them along with this sparkly cat burglar, who looks really nice in eyeliner.’

“Home is fine.” He said.

Izzy’s expression hardened. “Have you seen our mother and father?”

Alec had not. His schedule was packed between all of the vigilantism and his course load at school. Maryse and Robert were rarely home, and Alec was home even less. “No, actually. I’ve been pretty busy.” He said. Izzy pursed her lips, and the room was silent for a moment.  

“So Izzy’s opponent is kind of hot,” Jace announced, indelicately changing the subject.

“Stay away from her,” Izzy said threateningly. “At least until I beat her. Then I don’t really care.”

“You’re all heart, Izzy,” Alec said, and she laughed.

Alec couldn’t confide in his siblings about everything that was going on, which was not a familiar feeling for him. Regardless, it was nice to be back with them. He had missed them a lot.

\--

Magnus found himself with a bit of a conundrum. The Vigilante, who Magnus now saw more often than not, had been patrolling the city on a nightly basis since he and Magnus’ first encounter. Magnus had been unable to find him the previous night, and today he had been informed that _no one_ had seen the man. Magnus did not know if someone could be considered missing after only being absent for one night, but he found that he was worried nonetheless. He paced in the living room of his lavishly furnished apartment. Magnus’ cat, Chairman Meow, was watching him do so with very little interest. Some local TV network had been playing in the background for a while, nattering on about a big Mixed Martial Arts event going on in the city that weekend.

“Oh my god, I don’t care,” Magnus said finally, grabbing the remote and whirling to point at it the television. Then he was struck by a thought. The Vigilante was quite the competent fighter. One could even say he was versed in multiple styles. Magnus had seen him execute flawless kicks, terrific boxing, and take grown men to the floor to choke them into unconsciousness without so much as batting an eye.

And the first night he hadn’t been seen in a month was the night of a Mixed Martial Arts event.

“Huh,” Said Magnus, still staring transfixed at his TV. “Chairman, I may have a lead on our hero.”

The Chairman looked unimpressed.

That was how Magnus came to be attending the second night of said MMA event. He had viewed the card from the night before and looked at all of the competitors who would be fighting that evening. Magnus had found no one who matched what he knew of the Vigilante. They were too short, or too broad, or had the wrong hair and eye colors, or else were just the wrong gender entirely. It did not help that Magnus had never even seen his face. The fighter who most closely resembled what Magnus knew of the Vigilante was a girl who would be fighting later that night, and she was much too short.

By the time Magnus arrived the event was well under way. There were people everywhere, many of whom Magnus was well acquainted with. It was no wonder the Vigilante could afford to take the weekend off. It seemed as though half of the criminals in the city were attending the fights. Magnus obtained a drink and found a quiet little corner in which he could lean back and observe the madness.

“Pretty crazy, huh?”

“What?” Magnus looked up, startled.

His first thought was honestly _oh my god, who is this tall drink of water_?

The man who had spoken to him was a little bit taller than Magnus and gorgeous as anything. He had dark curly hair which fell in his face just the smallest amount and wore a plain black tee shirt which Magnus thought suited him _very_ well.

“Oh, yeah,” Magnus said, trailing his eyes down the stranger’s body. “It is quite something.”

“You here to see anyone in particular?” The guy said, leaning on the wall next to Magnus.

Oh yeah, the fights. “No, I’m just here for the experience,” Magnus said slyly. “Yourself?”

He nodded. “My brother and sister. Brother won yesterday, sister’s going up pretty soon after this.”

“Do you compete as well?” Magnus asked. The stranger appeared to be in excellent shape.

He just ducked his head self-consciously, however. “Oh, no,” The stranger stuttered. “Not much of a fighter.”

“Nothing wrong with a little bit of pacifism.” Magnus assured him, smiling. The stranger cautiously smiled back. In the ring, one of the fighters took a blow to the chin and dropped like a bag of bricks. The man’s eyes snapped to the stage as noise erupted throughout the room. It was easy to see that he loved it there with all of the fighting and the excitement.  

As the referee announced the outcome of the fight, the tall stranger’s phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket with a frown. “I’m sorry,” He said to Magnus.

“It’s fine,” Magnus told him.

The man put the phone to his ear with a frown and said over the noise, “This isn’t really a good time.” He listened for a moment and then his eyebrows shot up. “What did you just say?” He said, quite urgently. The stranger said hurriedly to Magnus, “It was nice to meet you.” He then set off through the crowd at a fast pace. Magnus couldn’t help but admire him as he went, from his tall, lithe frame to his black combat boots.

“Wait,” Magnus said to himself. Those combat boots looked awfully familiar.

Taller than Magnus, brown-eyed and in fighting shape. Magnus slapped a hand to his forehead. “Not much of a fighter,” He repeated the Vigilante’s words, and could not help but laugh and shake his head. The more he encountered this man, the more interesting he became.         

\--

“What did you just say?” Alec repeated into the phone once he had gotten away from all of the noise.

“There’s gonna be another kidnapping.” Clary said. “Tonight. You said you’re at the MMA thing?”

Alec confirmed, and Clary said “Stay put. Simon and I will be there in ten minutes.”

Alec tried to control his nerves. He had gone up and talked to the glittery jewel thief, like an idiot, because he was not expecting him to be here and _why was he here?_ Izzy was going up soon, too. His baby sister fighting on the pro level for the very first time, and now he was going to have to somehow stop a kidnapping on top of everything else.

“Hey,” Clary said, popping up out of nowhere and catching Alec’s sleeve. “Don’t freak out, okay? It’s going to be fine.”

“I know it is.” Alec lied.

“Right,” Clary said, watching his face and clearly not believing him.

Simon ran up behind her. “We should have plenty of time,” He informed them. “The potential victim isn’t even going to be in position for almost another two hours.”

“We should still get going.” Clary turned to leave, then looked back at Alec when he didn’t move.

“Actually, I can’t leave just yet.” Alec said.

Clary looked to be about five seconds from losing her temper and kicking Alec in the shin. “Why not?” She asked fiercely.

Alec debated if he could get away with a non-answer, then looked at Clary’s expression again and sighed.

“It’s my baby sister,” He said sulkily. Simon and Clary stared at him uncomprehendingly. He gritted his teeth and elaborated, “She’s up next. It’s her first fight.”

“Awww,” cooed Simon, disregarding the dirty look Alec sent him.

“Oh my god, you complete softy,” said Clary, looking half baffled and half delighted. Alec scowled.

“I will meet you two back here right after, do not move,” Alec ordered, and then turned and ran into the back. He still had a duty to fulfill as Izzy’s cornerman before he could go running off to stop a kidnapping.

Izzy won, like Alec knew she would. She yelled at the top of her lungs when Alec picked her up and swung her around and around. Jace stood up on his seat in VIP, yelling as loud as he could. Izzy banged on the cage and pointed at him, beaming. Alec waited, grinning uncontrollably as the referee declared Isabelle Lightwood the winner by TKO.

Alec’s brother and sister, safe and happy and here and successful. It was all he could ever wish for. He was happier than he could ever remember being.

“There’s something I have to go do,” Alec yelled in Izzy’s ear over the noise. “I love you, I am so fucking proud of you. I’ll be back later.” Izzy looked at him, confused but still elated and now beginning to tear up a bit from pure joy. Alec hugged her fiercely one last time and took off through the crowd.

Simon’s eyes were suspiciously damp, having observed the entire thing. “That was possibly the greatest thing I have ever seen in my life, ever.”

Alec rolled his eyes and tried to act as though he wasn’t embarrassed. From Simon’s shit-eating smile, he did not quite succeed, but he found that he also did not really care.

“ _That’s_ your sister?” Clary said, watching Izzy clamber over the wall of the cage and leap into Jace’s arms.

“Yeah, and my brother,” Alec confirmed.

“Oh,” Clary said faintly. Simon stifled a laugh.

“Okay, so do we not have a kidnapping to stop,” Alec said testily, and Clary snapped back to the present.

“Yes! Fuck! Let’s go!” She said, and took off through the crowd.

“Oh, excuse me,” Simon said, pushing in front of Alec to follow her. He smirked at the glare it earned him.

None of the three of them paid any attention to Magnus, who had watched this entire sequence of events unfold from across the room. They also didn’t notice the impeccably dressed man who had spotted Simon in the crowd and had been staring at him ever since, unable to believe his eyes.

“What the _fuck_ is he doing here,” Raphael Santiago said, with feeling.

\--

“Alright, okay, here we go,” Simon said frantically, fumbling with a duffel bag in the back of his car. “Easiest place to intercept the kidnappers will be here. Their target is heir to a gambling empire in the city. Like this dude is going to be a billionaire someday. His name’s Meliorn, which like, okay. Pretty weird, but rich people right?”

“Focus,” Alec told him.

“Okay, yeah. This is his condo. Crazy good security system, which I believe our mobster friends are hacking into right about now. If they get control of the system, we’re pretty much screwed. The simplest way to counteract that is going to be cutting the power so that’s what I’m going to be doing first. I’ve just got to get around back without being seen. Once that’s out of the way, Clary will be going in to get Mr. Meliorn. And you, Bruce Wayne, have the honor or distracting and-or dispatching the kidnappers. Obviously that is within your discretion.”

Simon clapped his hands together cheerfully and slung his duffel bag over his shoulder. Alec gave him a shitty look for the ‘Bruce Wayne’ comment but didn’t say anything. He was busy putting together his own supplies. The three of them had amassed a collection of useful tools over the past month. Alec had a couple sets of zip ties, and even a few smoke grenades that he had come up with somehow tucked into his many pockets. He had gifted Clary and Simon each with their very own smoke grenade. Both of them also carried a taser, just in case.   

“If anything happens, yell and I will come get you.” Alec told them seriously, and then the three of them split up.

Simon was right about the security system. The power in the condo flickered as it reset and was infiltrated by the potential kidnappers. Mere moments later, a black van pulled up across the street from Meliorn’s condo and the doors burst open. Simon had already reached the power box around back, and promptly hit the ‘EMERGENCY OFF’ switch.

Clary was in position just beside the back door of the house, and Alec was lying in wait in the shadow of the hedges that decorated the front of the condo. The mob henchman, all armed with rifles, reached the front door of the unit just as the power went off. It made them pause.

“What the fuck?” One henchman hissed. The man beside him shrugged.

Alec, unseen a scant few feet away from them, lashed out and punched one man in the throat. He neatly swept the man’s feet out from under him, and he hit the ground hard.

“That’s one,” He said. The other men began firing, but Alec was already on the move, and it was nearly impossible to hit his black-clad figure in the complete darkness. One mob grunt paused to reload, and Alec swept in, quickly disarming him and striking the man in the nose with the butt of his own gun.

“Two.” He said to himself.

Clary and Alec’s acquaintanceship went like this; Clary did a lot of ill-advised snooping and got deep into confidential police business in order to find people for she, Alec, and Simon to help. Alec sighed a lot, and punched a lot of people. For people who were forced to spend so much time together, they made almost no effort to get along. Alec thought Clary was annoying and much too impulsive and he often said so. Clary found Alec to be unnecessarily brash and in her own words ‘emotionally constipated.’ If you threw in Simon, whom Alec also found to be incredibly annoying, it was almost always a disaster.     

It was in situations like this that the three of them worked together flawlessly.

With Alec serving as a very effective distraction out front, Clary broke a window in the back and slipped in unnoticed. Simon had warned them that when the power shorted out the doors would automatically lock, and it would be very difficult to get them open. She found Meliorn in the living room, recognizing him by the distinctive tattoo on his face. It appeared that he had gotten down on the ground when a stray bullet had shattered one of the front windows.

Clary, crouching low to the floor as she approached him, asked, “Are you hurt?”

He looked at her with wide eyes. She was sure he was wondering who she was and what she was doing in his house. Clary repeated the question and he said, “No. Who the hell are you?”

“Clary. I’m here to get you out. I know you don’t know me, but we really need to go.”   

“How do I know you aren’t with them?” He jerked his head toward the front of the house. Someone was pounding against the front door like they were trying to knock it down. Clary tried not to worry about Alec.

“Because I’m not a huge guy with a gun. Anyway, would you rather take your chances with them and stay here?”

Meliorn swiftly decided that he would not like to stay there. Clary took him back the way she had come, and they were met with a large man pointing a gun through the window Clary had broken.

“Put your fucking hands up!” The guy said. An elbow promptly shot out of the darkness and slammed into his throat. The man dropped his gun, gasping for air. A strong punch to the solar plexus followed, and the gunman dropped like a stone.

“That makes six,” Alec said, stepping into view. He held a hand out and pulled Clary, and then Meliorn through the window.

“Stop right there!” Another man yelled, coming around the side of the condo.

“Go,” Alec ordered, pushing Clary away. “I’ll lead him away.”

Clary hesitated, but Alec had already run in the opposite direction, drawing the henchman’s attention. She led Meliorn to the next street over, where Simon was in position with the getaway car.

“Where is he?” Simon asked, speeding away from Meliorn’s condo. He was wary of identifying Alec in front of Meliorn.

“He distracted one of the gunmen so we could get away.” Clary said, anxiously chewing through her lip.

“Who are you people?” Meliorn ask dazedly, looking between the two of them. Simon laughed a little and didn’t reply. Clary ignored Meliorn altogether in favor of pulling out her phone and trying to call Alec. He did not pick up, so Clary sent him a text.

    

**From: Lucky the Leprechaun** (“Because you’re short, ginger, and annoying as hell. Just like the Lucky Charms guy.” Alec had said. “Get it?”)

_you ok?_

 

It was a couple long minutes of tense silence before Clary’s phone vibrated, scaring the hell out of everyone in the car.

 

**From: Eeyore** (“Because you’re depressing as hell and also an ass. Get it?” Clary had said.)

_fine. you & dipshit alive? _

 

“He’s fine,” Clary told Simon, who whooped cheerfully.

 

**From: Lucky the Leprechaun**

_we’re okay_

                                                           

**From: Dipshit** (“Because I hate you.” Alec had said to Simon.)

_stop calling me dipshit!!!!_

 

**From: Oscar the Grouch** (“Because you have crazy intense eyebrows and you’re always mad. Also, you belong in the garbage. Get it?” Simon had said.)

_no._

 

Clary and Simon dropped Meliorn off at his family’s hotel. He had called ahead, and his father’s most trusted bodyguards met him out front to insure his safety. They had already begun to discuss Meliorn’s alibi for why he had ‘luckily’ not been at his condo that night. Families such as the Seelies had no love for the police and did not trust them, for good reason. Clary and Simon did not have to be worried about Meliorn mentioning them or Alec to the cops.

Alec had texted once more to let the both of them know that he had arrived home safely. Clary had her doubts about Alec saying he was “fine.” ‘Fine’ did not necessarily mean ‘unharmed’ where Alec was concerned.

Adrenaline fading and leaving them exhausted, Simon and Clary made their way home to their shared apartment. The apartment was a little rundown and roughly the size of a shoebox, considering the two of them were college students, but it belonged to Clary and Simon and so the two of them were quite proud of it regardless.

Up until that year Clary had been living with her mom, but Jocelyn began to travel a lot for work. They decided as a family that it would cheaper to let the lease run out and for Jocelyn to just live with Luke when she was in town. Of course, Clary had been more than welcome at Luke’s as well.  

It was around the same time that Simon found himself needing a new place to live as well. He had previously been living with his boyfriend at the time, a man named Raphael. Clary had never found out what Raphael did for a living, but she knew that it paid very well and required him to wear a lot of very fancy suits.

Clary and Simon had been regularly getting into trouble together since long before they met Alec. The problem with Simon’s living situation started when the two of them went out one night and encountered a beautiful woman who called herself Camille. She had spun quite a sad story about how she was stranded downtown and badly needed to get to the airport, as she was attempting to flee from her abusive ex-boyfriend. Simon and Clary had immediately volunteered to help her and had snuck her out of town quite easily. Things had been going well, up until Camille pulled out a gun and put it in Simon’s face. She had taken both of their wallets and phones, struck Simon in the face with her pistol for good measure, and escaped into the night. Airport security had searched for her but had no luck.

Simon’s boyfriend had been absolutely furious. It turned out that Raphael knew Camille quite well. She was a notorious criminal, and Raphael’s organization--whoever it was that he worked for--had finally had her cornered. They had been searching for her for years. He had been less than pleased to find out that it was his very own boyfriend who had helped her escape, and that Simon had almost gotten himself shot in the face in the process.

Long story short, they had broken up. Simon had moved out, and he and Clary got the idea to find a place close to their college campus and move in together. It had been almost a year since Simon and Raphael had broken up. Clary suspected that Simon was still in love with him, though she knew that the two had never said ‘I love you’ to one another in the first place. Simon had met and gone out with numerous people since the breakup, but had never gone on a second date with a single one of them.     

\--

The next morning Clary found herself on the doorstep of the Lightwood’s rather spectacular home. Clary was impressed despite herself. It was not quite a mansion, but the house was certainly nothing to scoff at. Clary and Alec had exchanged addresses a couple weeks prior just in case of emergencies. After last night, Clary couldn’t help but want to check up on Alec. She did not trust his definition of the word ‘fine.’ He would probably say he was fine if he got shot.

For the same reason, she hadn’t warned Alec she was coming. She had, however, thought to stop and get coffee from a café so he would not slam the door in her face. Alec was a caffeine fiend. Clary sent him a text that just said ‘come answer the door’ and then rang the bell. She had been waiting only a moment when the door swung open and Clary found herself face to face with Alec’s little sister.  

“Oh,” Clary said blankly. “Hi.”

“Hello,” Alec’s sister said slowly, smiling. She looked from Clary to the cardboard cups of coffee she carried. “You here to see Jace, sweetheart?”

“No, Alec actually,” Clary said, having no idea who ‘Jace’ was.

“Alec?” The girl was visibly startled. “Well, come on in,” She said, then offered Clary her hand. “I’m Isabelle.”

“Clary Fray.” Clary returned. Isabelle held on to Clary’s hand for a fairly long moment, and smiled again.

 “How is it that you know Alec?”

“Uh,” Said Clary. She narrowly avoided saying, ‘We fight crime together.’ Simon really needed to stop saying that. Clary was beginning to feel as though she lived in a comic book. “We go to school together.”

“Oh.” Izzy wrinkled her nose. “Are you doing political science, too?”

Clary laughed. “God no. I study art. We’re just both at the library a lot.”

“Did the two of you have plans today?” Izzy asked curiously, leading Clary into a spacious kitchen.

“Um, no, I was just hoping to talk to him about something.” Clary said quickly.

“Ah, so the coffee’s a bribe. Good thinking,” Isabelle said mischievously, winking. Clary couldn’t help but smile.

“Holy fuck, I’m dying.” Said a voice from the hallway. Clary and Isabelle turned to see a blond man lumber into the kitchen like an angry, hungover bear. Clary had to assume that this was Jace. She thought she remembered seeing him at Isabelle’s fight.

“We’re out of coffee,” Isabelle informed him, smiling grimly. Clary realized that she was also hungover and just dealing with it a lot better than Jace, who was staring at the empty coffee pot as though it had personally wronged him. It took him a long moment to notice Clary, and he seemed to make an effort to fix his hair and look presentable.

“Who are you, then?” Jace said, smiling in much the same way as Izzy. Clary raised her eyebrows.

“I’m Clary, I’m Alec’s friend.” She thought of Alec’s reaction if he heard her call herself his friend and smirked.

Jace leaned over and said lowly to Izzy, “Alec has other friends? When did Alec meet and befriend people who aren’t us?” Izzy shrugged, wide-eyed, as if to say _I have no idea._         

“I was surprised, too.” Izzy whispered back.

“Are you the reason Alec wasn’t out celebrating with us last night?” Jace asked Clary, pouting childishly.

“Yep,” Clary said quickly. “My uh, roommate’s car broke down. We were stranded, he really helped us out.”

The three of them paused at the sound of hurried footsteps on the stairs. Alec burst wild-eyed into the kitchen, looking between Clary and his siblings in alarm. Clary noted that he didn’t appear to be visibly bruised or bleeding.

“Good morning,” Izzy said brightly.

“Alec, why have you never brought Clary around before?” Jace asked him faux-seriously. “How could you keep this from us?”

Alec looked to be on the verge of panicking, obviously thinking that his siblings had found out. “I just came by to thank you again for helping Simon and I out last night,” Clary said, handing Alec a cup of coffee. Jace and Izzy looked at it longingly. “That’s the second time his car has broken down this week.”  

“Uh, right,” Alec said, looking dubiously between Clary and the coffee cup. Clary gave him a sneaky wink and Alec relaxed a little, moving to sit at the breakfast bar with his coffee.

“I’m going to go shower and maybe throw up a little,” Jace announced to the room at large, and then wandered out.

“I’m going to make breakfast, you should stay.” Isabelle said to Clary brightly. Out of the corner of her eye, Clary saw Alec shake his head, mouthing ‘no.’

“I would love to.” She said. Alec sent her a shitty look, and Clary smothered a smile.

Clary sat down next to Alec at the breakfast bar. When Izzy walked away to get supplies from the fridge for breakfast Alec said under his breath, “Do _not_ eat the food.”

Clary gave him an odd look, but when Izzy set what she described as an ‘innovative’ breakfast casserole in front of them, she understood what he had meant.

Alec was politely ignoring the casserole in favor of reading the newspaper. “Weather’s going to be shitty today.” He commented. 

“Yeah,” Clary said, shivering. “It’s cold out. I wish I’d thought to wear a jacket, I walked over.”

Izzy looked at her in alarm. “You walked? Right, your roommate’s car broke down.” She looked upset for a moment and then declared, “Clary, you’re borrowing one of my jackets. Here, I’ll definitely have something that would fit you.” She grabbed Clary’s hand and towed her out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Alec watched them go and sincerely hated his life. He gladly could have dealt with Clary and his siblings never meeting. At least Simon wasn’t there too.  

Not two minutes later, Jace bounded down the stairs. “Aw, where’d Clary go?” He said, frowning.

Alec just pointed upwards and said, “Izzy.”

Jace snorted and promptly started stuffing food in his face as Alec looked on with an unusually content expression.

Jace stopped suddenly and said, mouth still half-full, “Did Izzy make this?”

“Yep,” Alec said peacefully, watching in apparent bliss as Jace leaned over and spat in the sink, rinsing his mouth out and sputtering dramatically.

“How could you,” Jace said viciously, jabbing a finger at him. “You traitor. You complete _bastard_. I thought you loved me.”

“Mff,” Alec replied eloquently, drinking from his coffee cup.

Altogether, it was a good morning in the Lightwood household. Clary left wearing Izzy’s favorite leather jacket, which caused Jace to tease her relentlessly and made Alec once again reflect on how much he hated his life.

“Now I have to see her again to get it back,” Izzy said simply, brushing off the teasing. Alec groaned.

Unbeknownst to Clary and the Lightwoods, there was currently a meeting going on across town in which they were the main topic of discussion. Anson, the younger of the two Pangborn brothers, was presenting all of the known information about the Vigilante to the assembled members of the Circle.

“This asshole has been cutting us off at every turn.” Anson began, scowling. “We think the first time he turned up was at the UNLV library, though the Vigilante had been making no attempt to hide his identity at that point. Our guys describe him as over six feet tall, brown hair, fair skinned and with a bad fuckin’ attitude. He fucked up the Renaissance operation, though we suspect he had help with that. The fucker made another appearance last night when we were trying to grab the Seelie brat. The difference this time is that we have video of him, pulled off of a security camera on the street. It’s not of very good quality, considering the Vigilante somehow knocked out the power.”

“He knocked out the power for the unit, overpowered six of my men, and escaped with Meliorn Seelie. One man did this.” Valentine Morgenstern stated, deadly calm.

Anson cringed. “We don’t think he was working alone.”

“I want to know how many people are helping him and who they are within forty-eight hours.” Valentine said. It was not a request. “Show me the video.” He said then.

The footage was grainy and hard to see, but everyone watching could just make out the black clad figure who appeared from the hedges in front of Meliorn Seelie’s condo and dropped two men within the first sixty seconds.

“I know who that is,” Hodge Starkweather said suddenly. He looked utterly shell-shocked at his own words. “I recognize the style. That’s the Lightwood’s oldest child. That’s Alec.” Everyone there knew the Lightwoods. They had at one time been some of the Circle’s most formidable allies. In recent years the Circle no longer had many friends in law enforcement, however, and the Lightwoods had allied themselves against the Circle to protect their own interests.

“Alec Lightwood.” Valentine said, looking marginally pleased. “Any chance the other Lightwoods are assisting him?”

Hodge shook his head. “Isabelle and Jace have been away, training to fight. I suspect that Maryse and Robert have no idea what Alec is up to. They would never approve of this.”   

Valentine made a sound of acknowledgement. “Tell us about young Mr. Lightwood.”

“Studying political science at University of Nevada Las Vegas. Quiet, serious, keeps to himself. Puts his family above everything.” Hodge shook his head in disbelief. “I would never have predicted this from him.”      

“His family.” Valentine smiled coldly. “I think we should let Alec Lightwood know just what will happen to his family if he continues to interfere with our business. A career in professional fighting can be very dangerous, after all.”

\--

“What?” Clary whispered, horrified.

Alec covered his eyes with one shaking hand and said, “I don’t know who they are or how they found out who I was. The message said if I ‘get in the way of their business interests’ again, Izzy and Jace will go down at the championships. And Jace will never fight again.” Alec’s voice broke.

“Oh my god, Alec. Oh my god. I’m so sorry.”

“What do we do?” Simon said. Alec was on speaker in Simon and Clary’s kitchen. “We have to protect Alec’s family.”

“’We’ do nothing. There is no ‘we’. I can’t do this anymore.” Alec said abruptly, and then hung up. He tossed his phone away, not caring where it landed. Alec felt as though he couldn’t catch his breath. He could hardly think with the way his heart was pounding in his ears. He had messed up, doing this stupid vigilante stuff, and now his brother and sister could be the ones paying for it.

The doorbell rang just then, scaring the hell out of Alec. He peered out of the front window warily. Alec was the only one home currently as Jace and Izzy were having dinner with their parents in order to celebrate their respective wins. Alec got the second major shock of the day as he recognized the glittery cat burglar standing on his front porch in broad daylight.   

Alec jerked the front door open, and bodily pulled the surprised jewel thief inside. He locked the door behind him. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?” Alec asked tersely.

“I realized who you were after you walked away at the fights. I then heard your sister’s name when they announced her victory. After that, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out.” The thief explained.

“Did you tell anyone else?” Alec asked, scowling fiercely.

“No,” He said, raising a perfect eyebrow. “Why?”

Alec ignored the question. “Who are you? Who do you work for?”

The thief tilted his head, observing Alec with interest. “My name is Magnus. Magnus Bane. You are Alexander Lightwood, and yesterday you trusted me just fine. What happened between then and now?”

Alec just stared at him mutely, his jaw working. He wanted to trust Magnus, but it was a pretty big coincidence that the threatening message had arrived the same day Magnus showed up at his home. However, Magnus had been helping Alec stop the kidnappings and other crimes being committed for weeks. It would make no sense for him to be involved with the threat issued toward Alec’s family.

Magnus could see that something important was obviously troubling Alec. “Since we met, I’ve always done my best to help you,” He said softly, giving Alec a tentative smile. “That much hasn’t changed just because I found out your name. Alexander, what happened?”

Alec let out a shaky breath. He collapsed against the wall and visibly crumpled, hunching in on himself. “What happened is that these people, whoever they are, found out who I am and they’re going to hurt my brother and sister the next time they fight. They said they would make it look like an accident.” Alec raked his hands through his hair. He was beginning to find it hard to breathe.

“Alexander?” Magnus asked, concerned. He stepped forward and caught Alec’s hands when he continued to tear at his hair. “We’ve stopped kidnappings, assassination attempts, and all kinds of other things right? We will stop them from hurting your family.” He held Alec’s gaze. “We will. I promise.”

Alec just nodded, unable to speak. Magnus noticed that Alec’s hands were shaking uncontrollably and he soothingly rubbed them between his own. “Breathe,” Magnus said softly. “Just one breath at a time. We’ll do this just one breath, one moment at a time, and you and I will get through this.” Alec slid down the wall and sank unsteadily to the floor, and Magnus kneeled in front of him, still holding his hands.

Alec let out another harsh breath, like a silent sob. He said, so quietly that Magnus had to strain to hear, “I am so scared of something happening to them. So fucking scared.”

“You’re not alone, Alexander.” Magnus said, almost as quietly.

“Alec. Not Alexander.” Alec said after a moment.

Magnus smiled, eyes crinkling. “But what if I like the way Alexander sounds?”

Alec let out a startled hiccup of a laugh. It sounded more hysterical than anything else, and he took his hands from Magnus’ and covered his face with them as he began to hyperventilate.

“Alec, hey. _Alec,_ ” Magnus said urgently. Alec did not respond. Magnus put a careful hand on his arm and when Alec did not object, tugged him forward and wrapped an arm around his back underneath his broad shoulders. “Is this okay?” Magnus asked, and waited for Alec to nod before he pulled his shaking frame against him, stroking the nape of Alec’s neck with his other hand. The two of them stayed like that for a long time, Alec with his face pressed against Magnus’ electric blue jacket and Magnus gently running his fingers through Alec’s hair.

“Thank you,” Alec whispered eventually.

“You don’t ever have to thank me.” Magnus told him. “I’ve just discovered that I can’t stand to see you unhappy.” Magnus had also discovered that he wanted to kiss Alec very, very badly. There was no way he was going to do that, however, as Alec was under considerable stress at the moment. If there was going to be kissing involved in their relationship it was going to be because Alec was clear-headed and happy and had decided that he wanted to kiss Magnus as well.

“Now then,” Magnus said decisively, getting to his feet and offering Alec his hand. “We should get you something to eat and maybe a hot shower, and then we can start working on a solution. I suppose I’ll have to tell you everything I know about the people behind all of this, because we’re going to have to take them—take _him_ down before the next time your brother or sister fight.”             


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I call this chapter ‘Everybody Finds Out.’

It took three days for Jace and Izzy to get fed up and decide to confront Alec. He had been acting extremely strange. For no reason that Izzy or Jace could tell, Alec guiltily refused to meet their eyes whenever he saw either one of them and actually seemed to be making an effort to avoid them. The two of them decided to corner Alec in the kitchen, abruptly entering and facing him where he sat breakfast bar.

“What is wrong with you?” Jace asked bluntly.

Alec glanced up and frowned at him. “What do you mean?”  

“I mean that you have been avoiding us all week and acting seriously weird, and Izzy and I would appreciate knowing why.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Alec said, his face completely blank. Izzy frowned, recognizing it as a lie.

“Why are you lying?” She said softly. Alec looked at her with the same guilty look he had been wearing all week.

“Come on,” Jace pressed. “We always talk to each other about everything. Just tell us what’s up.”

Alec paused. He opened his mouth to say something, then stopped. At that moment Alec’s phone buzzed on the counter. He glanced at it, then frowned. “Hold on,” He said, and then answered the phone. “I can’t talk now.” 

The person on the other end said, so loudly that Jace and Izzy heard it; _“Clary is about to do something_ really _stupid.”_

“Clary?” Izzy asked, frowning. Jace snatched the phone from Alec’s hand and put it on speaker.

“How stupid?” Alec asked warily, glancing at Jace warily but not taking the phone back.

Simon said in a rush, “There’s this diner on 32nd Street, this cute little mom and pop place that’s owned by a city council member’s parents. They’re really old folks, the place has been there for like thirty years. They’re going to burn it down because this councilman wouldn’t do what they said. Clary went to try and stop it by herself to keep you out of it.”

Alec slapped a palm against his forehead. “Are you serious _?”_ He demanded.

At the same time, Izzy looked up at Alec sharply and said, “What?”

“Alec, what is he talking about?” Jace asked.

“Am I—am I on _speaker_?” Simon said squeakily.

“Yeah,” Alec drawled. “Hold on a sec, dipshit.”

Alec reached behind him and then slapped a newspaper from the previous week down on the counter. He tapped his finger next to the headline, which said ‘VIGILANTE STOPS ARMED ROBBERY, REMAINS AT LARGE.’

Izzy and Jace looked between Alec and the newspaper, wild-eyed.

“Are you _fucking kidding me_ ,” Jace said.

“Alec, _alone_? Are you an idiot?” Izzy hissed furiously.

“No actually, not alone.” Said Alec’s phone before he himself could say anything.

Izzy took the phone and demanded, “Who is this?”

“Um, this is Simon. I’m going to assume this is Alec’s sister. Great fight, you were awesome.”

Izzy looked at the phone, clearly put off. “Thanks,” She said.

Jace had started to laugh. He laughed for a while, putting his head down on the counter.

“Jace?” Alec asked warily, looking worried.

“A month, Alec.” Jace gasped. “We were only gone for a month, and you became a fucking superhero and started taking on the mafia. People think that you’re the _responsible_ one.” He broke into laughter again. Izzy shook her head disbelievingly.

“Okay, so now that we’re all on the same page,” Simon said awkwardly. “Clary? Diner, fire, mafia? Big problem!”

“I’m going to call Magnus and meet you there, I’m leaving now. Don’t go in before I get there, no matter what happens,” Alec ordered, and waited for Simon’s confirmation before he hung up. He took back his phone from Isabelle and immediately dialed another number.

“Who’s Magnus?” Izzy asked.

Alec winced. “Just this, um.” He paused and cleared his throat. “He’s this cat burglar that I know.”

“Cat burglar,” Izzy said slowly. Jace started laughing again.

 _“Darling, hello!”_ Magnus boomed at the top of his voice when he answered the phone.

Jace laughed harder. Izzy gaped at the phone. Alec very briefly wished for death.

“Um, hey,” Alec managed.

“Alec, you’re blushing,” Izzy hissed, amazed.

“What’s going on?” Magnus asked. Alec’s phone was still on speaker.

“Clary is trying to stop the Circle from burning down a diner by herself in order to ‘help’ me.” Alec said wryly.

Magnus, who had met Clary and Simon several times, groaned. “Biscuit, no.”

“Yeah. 32nd street, I’m on my way now.” As the phone had been ringing, Alec had been gathering up his equipment and then making his way toward the garage, his brother and sister trailing after him.

“Alec, are you sure?” Magnus asked softly, knowing what Alec was risking.

“I can’t let the idiot get herself killed. Plus, my brother and sister kind of found out just now.”

“Oh,” Magnus said, surprised. “That’s great.”

“We’re coming with you.” Jace informed Alec just then. Izzy nodded in agreement.

“No you aren’t.” Alec said darkly, glaring at them.

“That could actually be a good thing,” Magnus said, and Alec turned his glare on his phone.

“How so?”

“We can make this hopelessly public. After all, they can’t hurt you if you’re in the public eye.”

Alec’s eyebrows furrowed. “You want to pin the Vigilante stuff on Jace and Izzy? They’ll be arrested.”

“Not the Vigilante stuff, just the diner. Say they were just in the right place in the right time. It will work.”

“What are you talking about?” Izzy asked.

Alec glanced at her. “Nothing. We’ll meet you there.” Alec hung up the phone, and hit the button to open the garage door.

“We’re taking the Audi?” Jace asked incredulously. Maryse’s brand new Audi was sacred. None of them were allowed to so much as touch it.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but this is sort of an emergency. We can’t exactly wait to catch the bus.” Alec said sarcastically, then tossed Jace the keys. “You drive. Don’t get us pulled over.” He got in the back of the car, leaving shotgun for Izzy. “Izzy, can you find out what this diner is called? We’re going to need to do better than just a restaurant on 32nd Street.”

Izzy was already pulling out her phone. “Got it, _darling_.” She said playfully.

Alec groaned, and Jace snickered as he backed the car out of the driveway at an alarming speed and revved the engine. He was pushing fifty miles an hour by the time the Audi left the Lightwood’s street.

“I said don’t get us pulled over,” Alec said.

“I won’t,” Jace promised, shifting gears and putting on an extra burst of speed. Alec rolled his eyes.

It took Izzy only a few minutes to locate the correct restaurant and she began to direct Jace to the right place. When they pulled up and parallel parked on the street, Magnus appeared out of nowhere, pulling his phone away from his ear as he smiled in greeting. He was wearing a shimmering gold paisley shirt which matched his gold eyeliner and smart gray trousers which were decorated with about a dozen zippers. Alec’s breath actually caught in his chest for a moment when he saw him.

“Very nice,” Magnus said about the Audi. Then as the four of them headed toward the restaurant he added, apropos of nothing, “I called the police.”

“I’m sure they will arrive twenty minutes too late, as usual.” Alec replied blithely. “Have you seen Simon?”

Magnus frowned. “No. I suspect he went in after Biscuit.” Alec sighed long-sufferingly.

“So you’re a cat burglar,” Izzy said to Magnus.

He winked at her. “Among other things.”

“Hey, watch who you’re winking at.” Jace said warningly. He didn’t mind people flirting with either Izzy or Alec, but he did have an issue with people who tried to play around and flirt with both of them. Magnus just laughed at him. The diner’s open sign was flipped to ‘closed’ and it appeared that there was no one inside. There was a small office space directly above the diner, so the four of them went up the fire escape and crept in through the upstairs window.

“I’ll take Isabelle and meet you downstairs,” Magnus said curtly, and took the cover off of the ventilation shaft. He climbed into it easily and then held out a hand for Izzy. She followed him with no more than a raised eyebrow. Jace and Alec took the stairs down to the first floor. Alec took one look at the main floor of the diner and groaned. Simon stood in the middle of the room, hands up as two men in black suits pointed guns at him. Clary was nowhere to be seen.

“Distract them?” Jace said. Alec jerked his head in a nod. Jace slammed the door open with a loud bang, Alec following a step after him.

“Well, howdy boys,” Jace said loudly.

“Wow, am I glad to see you,” Simon said. 

“How the fuck did you get in here?” One of the men said, pointing his gun at Jace instead.

“Always with the stupid questions.” Alec mocked. The man pointed his gun at Alec instead.

“Who’s asking stupid questions, asshole?” The man growled.

“That one was even stupider,” Alec informed him. The man flicked the safety off and Alec dove behind a booth as he fired two shots. Jace crouched behind a booth nearby and Simon scrambled backwards, as there was no longer a gun pointed at him.

“Any time now, guys,” Simon said lightly. The goons looked at Jace and Alec, taking cover behind the booths and guffawed.

“I don’t think they’re going to save you.” One of them informed him mockingly.

“Then it’s a good thing I wasn’t talking to them.” Simon told him, and then Magnus dropped from the vent overhead directly onto the henchman’s shoulders. He wrapped both legs around the man’s throat and twisted his body, slamming the suited man to the ground. Izzy dropped down after him and met the other goon with a roundhouse kick. He staggered back and she neatly dispatched him with a combination of hits to the sternum.

“This vigilante stuff is kind of fun,” Izzy said.

“Yeah, wait until you get shot at.” Alec replied.        

“Oh my god, it’s like having a bunch of Alecs. Kind of useful, but at the same time this is my worst nightmare.” Simon said.

“Shut up.” Alec groused. “Did I not say don’t go in until I got here? Why don’t you ever listen?” Simon looked appropriately contrite.

“Where’s Biscuit?” Magnus inquired, looking around.

“I saw her go through there,” Simon pointed at the door to the kitchen. “I was about to follow, but yeah. Guys with guns showed up. I haven’t seen anyone else.”

“The kitchen’s a great place to start if you’re looking to burn down a restaurant,” Jace pointed out.

There was a crash and then a scream from within the kitchen. The scream sounded alarmingly like it had come from Clary and Simon ran through the door and into the kitchen without hesitation.

“Idiot,” Alec yelled and chased after him on pure reflex, accustomed by now to Simon and Clary’s reckless hijinks. The other three followed after him.

There were five henchmen in the kitchen, plus Clary and a cook from the diner. One of the goons had smashed the cook’s head against the counter, which had caused Clary to scream. The cook lay clutching his head on the floor and bleeding profusely. Simon rushed the man who was holding Clary at gunpoint upon entering the kitchen. The goon shot three bullets haphazardly before Simon got lucky and punched the man solidly in the nose. His gun was sent skittering away from him. Shortly afterward, another goon put Simon straight through the back window. Clary promptly tased one of the goons after kicking the disarmed one in the groin. Izzy ended up neatly dislocating the tased man’s arm.

Between three MMA fighters, one cat burglar, and Clary’s taser, the five men were dispatched within minutes. Clary went to fetch Simon and make sure he was alright, while Jace checked on the injured cook and Izzy and Magnus fussed over Alec, who had gotten sliced with a butcher’s knife one of the men had been wielding.

“It’s not even that deep, I’m fine.” Alec tried to insist. Everyone was unconvinced.        

The rest of them were only a little worse for wear besides the ringing in everyone’s ears from gunshots going off in such close proximity to them. Clary came back into the kitchen followed by Simon, who was bleeding almost as much as Alec was and cringing at the pain he was beginning to notice in his own ears. Likely he had taken the worst of it, being so close to the man who had been holding Clary hostage.

“He got pretty cut up from the glass,” Clary reported, looking distressed.

“I’m okay,” Simon said reassuringly. He received similarly unconvinced looks.

“The hospitals not an option for obvious reasons, so you two are coming home with me,” Magnus announced. Sirens became audible from outside just then. “We should probably be leaving right now.” Magnus added.

Clary peeked through the kitchen door to catch a glimpse of the cops in the parking lot. She said, “Oh my god. It’s Luke.”

“You know him?” Magnus asked in surprise.

“My mom’s boyfriend. He’s pretty much like me and Simon’s dad.” Clary admitted.

“He’s also the only cop in this city worth his salt.” Magnus said, and Clary and Simon beamed at the compliment.

“He absolutely cannot see us here.” Simon said to Clary, who cringed at the mere thought.

“Follow me,” Magnus said, and led Alec, Clary, and Simon out the back door. Magnus had a non-descript gray sedan parked one block over. He handed the keys to Clary, confessing to being a terrible driver. Clary decided not to mention the fact that she did not even have a driver’s license. Simon sat in the passenger seat and Magnus sat in back, trying to staunch the blood pouring from the gash on Alec’s arm.

The plan was for Jace and Isabelle to take credit for stopping the potential arson and get their faces in the papers. If something were to happen to the Lightwood family after that, it would look extremely suspicious. Jace and Izzy would be safe until the next time they fought.  

“You know; you have always seemed very familiar to me.” Simon said randomly to Magnus on the way home to try and distract himself from the pain.

“Ever been to Brooklyn?” Magnus said haphazardly. “I used to live in Brooklyn.”

Simon shook his head. “Nah. The only person I ever knew from Brooklyn was this guy I used to date.”

Clary looked over, surprised. Normally Simon would rather die than talk about Raphael. He said no more, and the subject was dropped as Magnus began to direct Clary to his apartment. It was an ornately decorated loft with high, airy ceilings and a lot of windows. All of them felt at home immediately upon stepping through the door. Magnus herded everyone into his rather large bathroom, saying, “You two had better not get blood on anything. Today has been stressful enough.”

Magnus kept an industrial sized first aid kit in his bathroom. It had everything from burn cream to the plaster used to set broken bones. “A consequence of my occupation,” He told them.

Magnus instructed Clary to disinfect the cuts on Simon’s arm, shoulder, and chest left from the glass breaking and had her sterilize a pair of tweezers while he carefully stitched up Alec’s arm and bandaged it. Magnus found that he was impressed by how Alec sat as still as possible and did not whine about the discomfort even once.

“Alright?” Magnus murmured under his breath, meant for only Alec to hear.

Alec discreetly placed his free hand on Magnus’s knee and murmured, “Fine.” Magnus couldn’t quite stifle his smile. He was just finishing up on Alec’s arm when there was a hard knock on the door.

“That’ll be Jace and Izzy,” Clary said, getting up to let them in.

“Make sure it’s them before you unlock the door.” Alec said. “Just in case.”

Magnus had Simon sit down on the closed seat of the toilet and brace his arms against the counter as he prepared to pick out any broken glass that remained in the cuts on his abdomen. Alec comfortably settled against the opposite counter to watch.

“Um,” Clary said, reappearing in the doorway. “It is Jace and Izzy, but they’re not alone.” She wasn’t looking at Magnus, but at Simon.

Magnus frowned, turning around. “Who is it?”

“You’ve been awful busy lately, Magnus.” Raphael Santiago drawled, stepping into the hallway. “I’m not really sure why you’ve decided to mount this insane campaign against the Circle, but you do know it is going to get you killed, yes?”

“Ah, Raphael,” Magnus sighed. “I’m surprised it took you this long to put it all together. Or had you just decided to hold off on the nagging until now?”

Whatever Raphael was going to say in response, he forgot it when he stepped into the doorway beside Clary and saw Simon, perched shirtless and bloody on Magnus Bane’s toilet seat.

“What the fuck happened to you,” Raphael said. Simon just stared at him like a deer in headlights. Magnus looked between the two of them.

“Do you know each other?” He asked suspiciously.

“You could say that,” Clary mumbled. Raphael glanced at her and seemed to recognize her then, his mouth settling into a grim line.

“I’m always saying that you look familiar to me,” Simon said in a defeated tone.

It hit Magnus, and he gaped. “Oh my god, you’re him. Raphael’s mysterious boyfriend.”

“Ex-boyfriend,” Simon said weakly.

Magnus nodded energetically. “I know. Trust me, I know. For the first week after the break up, I thought you had actually died. Because he was being so depressing about it.” He glared at Raphael. “You’re telling me the whole time you’ve been acting like such a drama queen he’s been just down the street hanging out with Biscuit?”       

Raphael ignored him and pointed between Clary and Simon. “What ridiculously dumb thing did these two do now? How did Simon get those cuts?”   

“He saved my life,” Clary said defensively.

Raphael gave her a cool look. “Have you ever asked yourself why it is that your life always seems to need saving?”

“The whole thing was pretty cool, actually.” Jace commented, walking up and leaning against the wall behind Clary. Izzy ducked around Clary and Raphael and took a seat on the bathroom counter next to Alec. The bathroom was beginning to feel a little crowded. “This guy had a gun pointed at Clary and Simon rushed the dude and punched him in the face. He almost got shot like three times.” 

Raphael slowly registered Jace’s words, and the look on his face turned absolutely murderous. Simon visibly wilted. 

“Oh my god,” Magnus said. He pointed at Simon, and Simon’s sad face, and then at Raphael. “Fix it. You fix this right now. This is the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life.” Alec rolled his eyes fondly at Magnus’ dramatics.

“Do you think you could just get the rest of the glass out?” Simon asked quietly.

“Oh, right. Yes.” Magnus picked up the tweezers and crouched in front of Simon. “You did a good job, Biscuit. Hopefully we get all of these pieces out and nothing gets infected.”

“I think he landed pretty hard,” Izzy pointed out. “I noticed that Simon was favoring his left side earlier.”

Simon sent Izzy a betrayed look and she shrugged in response. Magnus carefully felt along Simon’s ribs, and he let out a strangled noise of pain. Magnus winced in sympathy, examining the already discolored flesh on his abdomen. “Yeah, you are going to have some serious bruises here. It looks as though there’s no cracked ribs, however.”

No one commented on the fact that Raphael was still standing in the doorway, watching Simon intently. He showed absolutely no indication of leaving.

“Wow Simon, you’re ripped,” Izzy said teasingly, winking at him and looking at his abs with exaggerated admiration.

“Oh yeah,” Simon said, grinning back at her. “All of this crime-fighting is a really great workout. Lots of cardio.” He winced, smile faltering as Magnus dug a rather large shard of glass out of his shoulder.

“Oh right,” Jace said. “Speaking of that. Hey wait, can we trust him?” He pointed at Raphael, who looked affronted.

“Yeah, he probably knows everything anyway.” Magnus said resignedly.

“I _thought_ I knew everything.” Raphael said, glancing at Simon. 

 Jace said, “Anyway Alec, you shouldn’t go home for a while.”

“Mom and Dad weren’t too pleased about all of this, huh?” Alec said dryly.

“Yeah, definitely not.” Izzy agreed. “They were furious. First they were mad about the Audi which was so unfair because that was your idea, Alec.” Alec gave her a shitty smile, and she smacked him. “Then they were angry because me and Jace made the evening news about the whole arsonist thing. Mom said it was ‘not the kind of image we needed to be cultivating for our family.’”

Clary scoffed. “Most parents would be proud that their kids saved someone’s life and stopped a family’s business from burning to the ground.”

“Not ours.” Izzy said, lips twisting bitterly.

“Alexander can stay here.” Magnus said, smiling at him. Alec flushed. “I’ll have to check on his stitches, after all.”

“What about me and Izzy?” Jace asked, nonplussed.

“You can stay at Clary and I’s apartment,” Simon offered. He glanced at Isabelle meaningfully when she wasn’t looking and then wiggled his eyebrows at Clary, who looked as though she was considering murdering Simon. Magnus caught the whole exchange and snorted.

Simon grinned at Magnus impishly and Magnus staggered back a step, clutching his chest exaggeratedly. “Jesus, Sawyer. Give a guy a warning before you smile like that. I nearly had a heart-attack.”

“It’s like looking directly at the sun.” Clary agreed, nodding.

“Alright, it looks like that’s it,” Magnus declared, dropping the tweezers and patting Simon’s cheek amiably. He wet a washcloth and handed it to Simon, who started swiping at the blood that had dried around the cuts.

“I need to speak with you.” Raphael said to Magnus, who sighed dramatically.

“Yes, alright, come into my house and lecture me on my life choices. Again.” He threw up his hands and strode from the bathroom, Raphael leaving with him.

“Well, today has been fun.” Clary said flatly in the silence.

Alec turned to glare at her and demanded, “What made you think going to a diner full of guys with guns by yourself was a good idea? You could’ve died, and you almost got Dipshit killed as well.” Simon made a noise of protest and was summarily ignored.

“I was trying to help you!” Clary shot back. “I knew what would happen if you kept getting involved, but I couldn’t let them burn that family’s restaurant down. There weren’t any other options.”

“Getting shot in the head is not a viable option either.” Alec said dangerously. “Do you understand how easily that could have happened today?”

“You do stuff like that all of the time,” Clary accused.

“Not alone.” Alec shot back.

“What about with Meliorn?” Clary demanded.

“That was different. You had to get him out of there.” Alec said.

Clary shook her head, hair whipping around. “It’s not different at all. You are such a fucking hypocrite.” She stormed out of the bathroom. Simon started to get up in order to follow her and winced. Izzy held out her hand to stop him.

“I’ll check on her.” She said softly, then patted Alec’s shoulder and walked out.

“So, staying with you huh?” Jace said to Simon.

“Yup. Either Clary can stay with me or Izzy can stay with Clary, and the couch is all yours.” Simon said.

“Or I could stay with Clary.” Jace said.

“No, you couldn’t.” Simon said cheerfully.

A pause.

“So you and Clary,” Jace said suggestively.

Simon laughed. “Yeah, no.”

“So, you and Raphael,” Jace said, more suggestively.

Simon’s smile fell. “Not anymore.” He said.

They sat in silence for a minute, and then Simon said, “Do you think Magnus has any food? I am starving.”

Alec gave him a dirty look. “It’s not Magnus’ job to feed you.”

Simon groaned and said, “Go find Clary and apologize so that we can leave and get something to eat, then.” Alec acted as though he hadn’t even spoken and Simon sighed heavily. Jace looked on in amusement. 

Izzy popped her head around the door. “Magnus wants to talk to everyone in the living room, then we can head out.”

“What’s bothering me,” Magnus was saying to Clary and Raphael as the rest of them entered the living room. “Is that we still don’t know how the Circle found out Alexander’s identity. It was right after the failed kidnapping of Meliorn Seelie, but Biscuit and Seymour didn’t even say Alec’s name in front of him.”

“Seymour?” Izzy whispered, coming up next to Clary.

Clary rolled her eyes. “He means Simon.”

“There was a security camera out front of Seelie’s condo. The police tried to pull the footage later and there was nothing. It goes black for about twenty minutes.” Raphael said.

“How do you know that, exactly?” Jace said, raising an eyebrow.           

“Raphael is the leader of the N.C.,” Magnus said. Every eye in the room snapped to Raphael. The N.C., or Night’s Children, were a rather well known crime organization in the city.

“The leader,” Simon echoed, mildly surprised.

“So somebody else got to the camera before the police and removed the footage.” Alec summarized.

“That would be the Circle.” Magnus said thoughtfully. “Who in their organization would be able to identify Alec without even seeing his face?”

“He was wearing all black and a hood in addition to having his face covered. They would have had to know from his fighting, maybe?” Simon hazarded a guess.

Izzy shook her head. “The only people who could identify Alec off of his fighting style are me, Jace, and maybe Hodge.”

Raphael and Magnus both whirled to face Izzy. “ _Hodge?_ As in, Hodge Starkweather?” Raphael asked with some urgency.

“Yes?” Jace said, mystified. “Do you know him?”

Raphael started to laugh humorlessly. Magnus said, “He used to be one of the Circle’s most loyal members. I didn’t even know he was still in Vegas. He’s your coach?”

“He’s been our coach for like ten years,” Izzy said. “He would never do something like that to Alec.”

“You don’t know him as well as you think.” Magnus said bitterly.

The three siblings traded horrified looks. Their own coach, a man who had practically helped raise them had possibly betrayed Alec’s identity to people who were now out to kill them. 

“Where’s Max right now?” Alec asked Jace in a low voice. “No one is at the house, are they?”

Jace shook his head. “No, Max will be on his way to Los Angeles with Robert right now since he got kicked out of school again. Mom said she was sticking around for a few days to ‘clean up after us’ and save face. Then she’ll be going with them.”

Alec breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t worried about the Circle going after their mother. All of Maryse’s children suspected that the devil himself wouldn’t be able to go up against her and emerge victorious.

“Why would Hodge do it, though? Why join the Circle?” Jace said, scowling ferociously.

Magnus made a thoughtful sound. “In the beginning they all join for the power and status, I imagine. Hodge, though, is now out for revenge.”

“Why would his revenge mean hurting Alec?” Izzy said. Raphael shot Magnus a look, which he pretended not to see.

“I’m not sure.” Magnus said. Raphael rolled his eyes, but said nothing.   

The impromptu meeting broke up soon after that with Magnus insisting that “Alexander and Sheldon need to get some rest.”

“Gee thanks, Macabre,” Simon said, glaring. “That’s so thoughtful of you.”

“Don’t even mention it, Sidney.” Magnus said faux-sweetly.

“Clary, isn’t Macarena just such a swell guy?” Simon said, not looking away from Magnus.

“Um,” Said Clary. Magnus mouthed the word ‘macarena’ silently, looking scandalized.

“You should be nicer to the guy who just picked all of the glass out of your chest, _Semen._ ” Magnus said.

“Thanks so much for that, _Marcus_. You’re a real pal.”

The two of them then stared at each other in silence, each looking completely betrayed.

Jace swung the front door open and said into the quiet, “So, can we go now?”

Clary and Izzy immediately made for the door, both more than ready for this whole exchange to be over.  

“I hadn’t noticed earlier,” Izzy said to Clary, a smile curling on her lips. “You’re wearing my jacket.” Clary stuttered out some kind of response that went unheard by the rest of them and made Izzy’s smile widen.  

“Simon.” Raphael said quietly as Simon moved to leave.

Simon did not even look at him. “Not now, please. Anyway, it’s not actually any of your business anymore if I get myself killed, right?”

Raphael watched him go with a frown, while Magnus sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that day.

“And people say that _I’m_ dramatic?” He mumbled.  

-

The following morning, everyone in the Fray-Lewis apartment was feeling the lasting effects of the day before. Between them, Izzy and Jace had about ten passive aggressive texts from their parents. Clary had angry purple marks that greatly resembled handprints on her arms, and Simon was moving like an eighty-year-old man from all of the bruises he had obtained the day before.

Clary took one look at him and declared, “You are _not_ going to class today.” She then announced her intentions of making pancakes, omelettes and hashbrowns for breakfast, so Simon elected not to argue with her. Jace woke from his spot on the couch almost as soon as Clary and Simon came into the kitchen, and their conversation soon woke Isabelle and drew her out of Clary’s room. Clary was sharing Simon’s room for the time being. 

Simon was so grateful to Clary for making breakfast that he proceeded to take a seat right there on the kitchen counter and serenade her while she cooked.

“Wouldn’t it be a better thank you to just help her?” Izzy asked in between songs, clearly amused.

“Simon’s not doing anything today.” Was all Clary had to say, and then Simon launched into his next impromptu track; a rather soulful rendition of a Justin Timberlake song.

Magnus made his customary dramatic entrance to their apartment in the middle of said serenade, accompanied by Alec. Simon, to his credit, did not even pause.  

“I’m pretty sure the front door was locked.” Clary observed.

“It was.” Magnus said cheerfully. “You should reinforce your locks. Not that it would stop me, but you know. Other people.”

Simon was still singing, and showed no sign of stopping until Alec said threateningly, “Dipshit, I swear to god.” Simon sent him a wounded look.

Jace snickered. “Alec’s not really a morning person.”

Clary had narrowed her eyes at Magnus. “Or, just an idea; you could just not break in to my apartment.”

“Ah, Biscuit,” Magnus said dramatically. “How can you ask a leopard to change his spots?”

Meanwhile, Simon had stolen the carton of blueberries meant to be used for the pancakes and was tossing them up in the air for Izzy to catch in her mouth.

Jace pushed Izzy playfully out of the way. He gestured from the blueberries to himself and said, “Do me.”

“Oh. You aren’t really my type.” Simon said blithely. Clary smothered a snort.

Jace rose to his full height, looking pissed. “I,” He said, his tone deadly. “Am _everyone’s_ type.”   

“So, big brother,” Izzy said brightly, tuning them out. “What’s the plan for today?”

Alec shrugged. “Just laying low for now. Everybody in the city would recognize you and Jace’s faces after yesterday.”

“Haha,” Simon said. “Jace’s faces.”

Alec gave him a dirty look. Jace was still fuming about not being Simon’s type.

“We’ll be around today,” Clary gestured to herself and Simon. “I don’t have class and Simon’s not going.”

“I am throwing a party tonight,” Magnus informed them all amiably. “You’re all coming.”

Silence.

“That is the opposite of laying low,” Alec pointed out. Magnus gave him a winning smile.

“A party is the perfect way to lay low.” Izzy declared. The look Alec gave her was extremely skeptical.

“It will just be a small gathering at my apartment.” Magnus assured Alec.

“Is Raphael going to be there?” Clary asked with her eyes fixed on Simon.

Magnus shrugged. “Raphael isn’t much for parties.”

Simon also shrugged. “I’m in.”

“Okay, me too.” Clary said.

“Then it’s settled!” Magnus said, pleased.

-

Magnus’ idea of a ‘small gathering’ was very different from most people’s. Hundreds of people were streaming in and out of his spacious loft, the whole place lit by flickering strobe lights. There was an actual DJ set up at one end of the floor, and the furniture had been cleared away to leave room to dance.

“Who are all of these people?” Clary yelled into Magnus’ ear.

He lifted his hands in an elaborate shrug. “Friends, business associates,” He yelled. He did not seem remotely alarmed. “Don’t worry, it’s invitation only. Security at the door is very good. I do this often.”

Clary badly wanted to believe him. She could hardly remember the last time she had been able to relax and just be a young college student. It had been since before she and Simon had met Alec and started on this whole insane crusade, that was for certain.

“Clary!” Izzy yelled just then, appearing out of the crowd with two red plastic cups. Magnus wiggled his eyebrows at Clary suggestively and disappeared into the slew of people himself. Clary could swear she saw him headed for Alec, leaning alone against a wall across the room.

Izzy presented one plastic cup to Clary with a grand flourish. Izzy had spent a good chunk of the afternoon scouring Clary’s closet for something for both of them to wear. As none of the Lightwood’s could return home at the moment, they were forced to borrow or go out and buy everything they wore.

Izzy had dug out a blood red cocktail dress Clary had worn maybe only once since she had bought it, and she was currently looking unfairly good in it. She had curled her hair and left it down, and found lipstick to match. Clary may or may not have been looking at said lips an awful lot. She was trying not to think about it too much.

Izzy had also insisted that Clary wear her leather jacket over to the loft again, and Clary was distraught upon finding out that it still smelled exactly like Isabelle. Clary wanted to curl up and sleep in the jacket and possibly never take it off, but she was trying not to think about that either. She had been both disappointed and relieved to shed it in the heat of all of the bodies occupying the loft.

“What’s in this?” Clary shouted back, looking doubtfully at the cup. It smelled toxic.

“Jungle juice. It’s a surprise,” Izzy said, and winked, downing half of her cup in one go. Clary was not one to be one-upped, and also badly wanted to forget about everything; the threats against Izzy and Jace’s lives, the cook being nearly killed at the diner, Simon almost being shot and he and Alec getting hurt. Clary took a deep drink from her cup. It tasted like fruit and a little bit like poison.

“Dear god,” She said. Izzy laughed delightedly.

“Dance with me?” Isabelle asked, extending a hand to Clary and wiggling her fingers expectantly. Clary was pretty sure that was a horrible idea as far as ‘pretending all of this wasn’t happening’ went. There was also nothing she wanted to do more at that moment.

 _Screw it_ , Clary thought, and tossed back the rest of her cup. She cringed at the taste, making Izzy giggle again, and took the other girl’s hand. The two of them weaved through the crowd, drawing more than the occasional stare and even a whistle or two. Izzy found a spot in the middle of it all that seemed to be to her liking and paused to finish her drink before flinging the empty cup out into the crowd.

Clary very quickly came to the realization that Izzy was a _good_ dancer. More than good. She was all winding hips and perfect coordination, her hair flashing different colors in the strobe lights. She once again offered her Clary her hand and when she took it, pulled Clary flush against her. Izzy’s other hand was feather-light on Clary’s waist.

“Okay?” Izzy breathed, right in Clary’s ear. Clary fought back a shiver and nodded. It was right about then that Clary decided she was tired of being the only one constantly caught off-guard and wound both of her arms around Izzy’s neck, adding a mean twist to her hips. Izzy’s eyes went wide for a moment before her smile turned wicked.

It was impossible to say how long they stayed like that on the dance floor, Clary’s hands tangled in Izzy’s hair, Izzy peppering tiny kisses down Clary’s throat in between songs. It could have been mere minutes or years.

Eventually it got so hot in the midst of all of the people that it was becoming hard to breathe and Clary suggested they get some air. Izzy snagged her jacket on the way out and gave it to Clary, who couldn’t quite hide her smile. They briefly encountered Jace, who seemed to be absolutely enthralled with the leather bodysuit-clad woman he was talking to.

“I don’t see Alec anywhere,” Izzy said, then gave a sly sort of smile. “Off with Magnus, no doubt.”

Clary stopped and frowned. “Hey, have you seen Simon since we got here?”       

-

Simon had a blast for the first part of the party. He couldn’t dance as much as he wanted to due to his aching bruises, but he snuck neon bright cups of punch when Magnus wasn’t looking. He had given Simon two painkillers earlier, and Simon had promptly disposed of them as soon as he wasn’t watching. The constant pain was a small price to pay for alertness, in Simon’s opinion.  

Mostly, he had wandered around and struck up a conversation with anyone who looked interested. Simon was in the kitchen, talking to two women about the challenges of practicing witchcraft in modern day Vegas—and he was pretty sure they were entirely serious—when he looked up and found himself looking right at Raphael.

It dawned on Simon that Magnus had never explicitly said Raphael would not be at the party. He had only said that Raphael ‘wasn’t _much_ for parties.’

Probably, Simon realized, Magnus had thrown this party specifically to get Simon and Raphael together in the same place again, and to give himself an excuse to spend time with Alec.  

“Magnus, you scheming asshole,” He said out loud. The two women looked taken aback. Raphael just smiled smugly, the bastard. He knew as well as Simon did that there was no way Simon could once again dodge the conversation Raphael had tried to have the other day.

Simon hastily apologized and excused himself from his previous conversation. He allowed Raphael to lead him out onto the abandoned balcony out back of Magnus’ apartment.

“You know that you broke up with me?” Simon said tiredly, when Raphael didn’t speak. “It’s pretty messed up for you to just turn up out of nowhere and demand that I talk to you.”

“I didn’t ‘turn up out of nowhere.’ _You_ turned up in the apartment of one of the most accomplished thieves in the city--and one of my oldest friends--bleeding all over the place.” Raphael’s gaze was fixed on the cuts left visible on Simon’s arm.

“Not bleeding all over the place,” Simon argued. “It wasn’t that bad.”

Raphael gave him a flat look and said nothing. He then returned to glaring at Simon’s t-shirt like he could see through it if he tried hard enough.  

Simon knew what it was that had Raphael so distracted. Whenever Simon had been hurt back when they were together, Raphael couldn’t rest until he had examined the injury with his own eyes and proved to himself that Simon would be alright. It was secretly one of Simon’s favorite things about him. Raphael seemed so unfeeling and snarky at first, but underneath his tough exterior he was a worrier and would do anything for the few people he cared about.

Simon just wasn’t sure he belonged in that category anymore.

He still trusted Raphael. Moreover, he was _so damn sick_ of missing Raphael when he was standing right in front of him. So Simon tentatively reached for the hem of his t-shirt and said, “Want to check it out?”

Raphael raised a sardonic eyebrow. “If you wouldn’t mind.”

Simon was feeling generous, so he ignored the sass. He knew too well that Raphael got defensive whenever he was caught showing the least bit of concern for another person.

It took Simon a good couple of minutes to ease out of his shirt due to the screaming ache in his ribs and shoulder. He couldn’t quite stifle the small sound of pain he made when he was forced to lift his arms over his head. He felt rather than saw Raphael step between his legs and carefully slide his shirt up and off of his arms. 

“If you want me to back off,” Raphael said, and trailed off. Simon actually laughed a little bit at the idea of himself ever wanting Raphael farther away from him. It almost physically hurt to have Raphael this close after all this time and not be able to even touch him.

“It’s fine.” Was all Simon said.

Raphael nodded and turned his attention to Simon’s torso, immediately hissing out a curse. The bruises on his abdomen had darkened in places to a deep red-purple, and angry cuts left by the glass littered his body from hip to shoulder.

Raphael trailed feather-light touches over the cuts, his eyes wide. Simon couldn’t hold back a shudder. “I never did hear how you got these,” Raphael commented.

Simon winced, thinking of what parts of yesterday he could not tell Raphael. He was actually fairly sure that there was no part of the story Raphael would be happy to hear. There was also no way to dodge telling him the story without losing what little ground he had regained in regards to their relationship.

Simon hesitated too long, and Raphael gently took his chin and tilted it up to meet his eyes. “Don’t sit here and think of the best way to lie to me. Don’t you dare.” He said seriously.

Simon bit his lip guiltily and then sighed. “The Circle made a threat to Alec. He stops protecting people, or Jace and Izzy get seriously hurt next time they fight. Yesterday we found out about a plan to burn down this diner that belonged to a city councilman’s parents to get him to go along with the Circle’s demands. Clary tried to stop it on her own to help Alec.”

“And you went into the diner filled with armed men right after her, didn’t you,” Raphael said flatly.

Simon glared at him. “I called Alec first! We couldn’t see Clary and then I heard her scream. I just saw this guy, he was a cook there, bleeding out on the floor. Another one of them had Clary, so,” Simon shrugged. “That part went okay. I just ended up getting thrown through a window after that. That’s what all this is from.” Simon gestured haphazardly to the assorted cuts and bruises.

Raphael shook his head and moved the hand holding Simon’s chin to cradle his jaw. He brushed a thumb over Simon’s cheekbone. “So stupid, and so brave.” Raphael murmured.

Simon let out an incredulous breath. “I’m not entirely sure that I’m not hallucinating this whole conversation.”

Raphael raised an eyebrow. “Why would you say that?”

Simon gave a sad little laugh. “Because in real life you hate me?”

Raphael shook his head and brought his other hand up to cradle Simon’s face. “I have never and will never hate you.” He said, as serious as Simon had ever seen him.

Simon shut his eyes and tried to breathe evenly, reaching up to curl his fingers around Raphael’s. He had _dreamed_ of hearing those words. Simon simultaneously wanted to stay here, safe in Raphael’s hands for the rest of his life, and wanted to run away from all of this as far and as fast as he could.           

Just then the door swung open and there was Izzy, standing in the illuminated doorway. She took in the sight of Raphael standing in between Simon’s legs, his hands framing Simon’s face. She looked at Simon’s shirt, on the floor.

“Oh my god,” She said blankly.

“What?” Said Clary, peaking around her. Then; “Oh my god.”

 Clary, who was once again wearing Izzy’s jacket, and appeared to be holding her hand.

“Oh my god!” Simon echoed, looking at their linked hands.

Izzy cringed. “I saw nothing, and you saw nothing. Agreed?” Simon saluted her and Raphael merely snorted, finally dropping his hands from Simon’s face. Clary gave a little wave as Izzy winked at the pair of them and shut the door again, more than likely off to find a quiet corner to seduce Simon’s best friend.

“Wow, I am so going to be the best man at their wedding. Me and Alec, probably. Maybe even Jace, too.” Simon frowned. “Oh no. We’re never going to get rid of each other now.” He gazed sorrowfully into the distance, likely picturing a future in which he had to deal with Alec and possibly even Jace for the rest of their lives.

“How drunk are you?” Raphael asked with some amusement.

“Not very, on account of the painkillers everyone thinks that I am taking.” Simon reported.

Raphael’s expression went stormy. “Painkillers everyone thinks you are taking? Painkillers that you are not _actually_ taking, then?”

Simon cringed and muttered, “Oops.”

“Why?” Raphael demanded.

“If something else happens, I’m not going to be very useful if I’m high out of my mind.” Simon said flatly.

Raphael looked for a moment like he would very much like to yell at Simon. Then he exhaled harshly and his posture relaxed, only nodding to acknowledge Simon’s words. Another thing Simon had always loved about Raphael was the way he just _understood._

Rather than watch Simon struggle back into his t-shirt and possibly hurt himself worse, Raphael quickly shrugged out of his leather jacket and draped it around Simon’s bare shoulders. He looked at Raphael, surprised, and Raphael stuck a finger in his face.

“This jacket is Saint Laurent. Do not let anything happen to it, or I swear to god,” Raphael said sternly.

Simon grinned and promised solemnly, “I will protect it with my life.”

Raphael jabbed his finger at him again. “No. No no no. You protect your life first.” 

“You are very demanding,” Simon complained.

“You are going to deal with it.” Raphael informed him. He wrapped a careful arm around the small of Simon’s back and guided him off of the back balcony and through the party, which was still going strong. Alec and Magnus were noticeably no longer in attendance. Raphael propelled Simon up the stairs and through a door that led to an empty bedroom.

“Guest room.” Raphael said by way of explanation. He rifled through one of the drawers in the dresser and came up with a pair of sweatpants, which he tossed at Simon.

“I’m not actually a small child, and I don’t need to be put to bed.” Simon said exasperatedly.

“You also don’t seem to realize that bruised ribs are nothing to mess around with.” Raphael said fiercely. “How useful will you be when you’re not healing because you don’t take care of yourself?” 

Simon considered that. “I’m also not sure how Alec would feel about me wearing Magnus’ sweatpants,” Simon said, eyeing them with trepidation.

Raphael frowned at him and said, “They’re my sweatpants. I sleep here sometimes.” He walked back to the door and paused only to say, “Stay here.”

Simon shook his head, smiling. “Some things don’t change.” He mumbled. Raphael still ordered him around like it was his God-given right. It didn’t bother Simon much, even now, because if Raphael was trying to tell him to do something it was because he cared. Also, Simon didn’t usually listen to anything he said.

Raphael returned with a tall glass of water and two pills that looked different than the painkillers Magnus had given him earlier. Simon regarded them warily.

“They’ll help you sleep with the pain,” Raphael said, as gently as Raphael Santiago possibly ever could. “They won’t get you high. If anything happens, I promise I will come and wake you up.” Simon relaxed minutely. Raphael had never broken a promise, as far as Simon knew. He took his word incredibly seriously.

Raphael stood and waited while Simon took the pills and laid down. When Simon just looked back at him expectantly, Raphael made a disgruntled noise and said, “Go to sleep.”

Simon grinned and shut his eyes. “Always giving orders.”

Raphael only shook his head and went to the door. “Good night, idiot.”              

-

While Izzy was making her move and Raphael was making amends (and Jace was flirting with women in leather bodysuits), Magnus and Alec were making their escape.

“Where the hell are we going?” Alec asked for what felt like the fiftieth time.

Magnus had only been in attendance at his own party for about twenty minutes before he appeared in front of Alec, Alec’s jacket already in his hands, and asked smilingly, “Want to get out of here?” Alec wasn’t the biggest fan of parties in the first place, and had been more than happy to leave.   

Magnus had prodded Alec into the elevator and rather than directing them toward the street or the parking garage, he pushed the button to go up.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you,” Magnus scolded without venom, and led Alec to a door on the top floor that read ‘RESTRICTED.’ Magnus picked the lock easily and swung the door open, gesturing toward the staircase inside, which led up. “After you.”

Magnus’ ‘surprise’ was the roof of his building, which Alec didn’t understand until he looked over the edge and was treated to the most extraordinary view of the city he had ever laid eyes on. It was lit up in neon lights of a hundred different colors, stretching out into the desert. Alec exhaled slowly, at a loss for words.

“I just thought you should get to see what it is that you’ve been fighting for,” Magnus said quietly from beside him. Alec swallowed around the knot in his throat and nodded his thanks. “Well, take a seat,” Magnus said, pointing to the raised concrete ledge along the edge of his building.

The moment he and Alec sat down, Magnus pulled two cocktail glasses and a bottle out of his jacket. “Drink?” He offered slyly, and Alec couldn’t help but laugh.

“So why throw a party you have no intention of going to?” Alec asked as Magnus poured their glasses.

Magnus smiled mischievously. “The first reason is I invited Raphael. I don’t know exactly why he and Satchel broke up but clearly they’re miserable without one another. The second reason, Alexander, is I wanted to see you again.”

The corner of Alec’s mouth tipped up. He said, “Should have just called and I’d have been at your door. You don’t need to throw a whole party for me.”

“Is that right?” Magnus said, a slow smiling curling on his lips. Alec carefully set his half-full drink on the ground, and took Magnus’ drink from him, doing the same.

Then with his lips only a breath away from Magnus’s, Alec whispered, “It is,” And kissed him

It was cold up on the roof in the dead of night, but Magnus’ lips were impossibly warm. So was the smooth, taut skin of his back when Alec slipped his hands up the back of his shirt. Magnus hummed in approval, shifting even closer and curling the fingers of one hand in the collar of Alec’s jacket. He bit Alec’s bottom lip and when he gasped softly, licked into his mouth with practiced finesse. Alec hadn’t kissed a great many people in his life, but he knew enough to recognize that Magnus was damn good at it.

Soon enough Magnus pulled back just the smallest amount and started to trail kisses down Alec’s neck. Alec couldn’t help but tilt his head to give him more room, shuddering violently when Magnus bit down on his pulse point and sucked.

Pulling back suddenly, Magnus looked almost guilty. He said, “Alexander, are you sure about this? I realize you have had a pretty stressful, life-changing week. I don’t want you to do anything you will regret.”

Alec actually laughed, incredulous. He wrapped his arms more securely around Magnus and said, “I have possibly never regretted anything less in my life. If anything it’s you who should be unsure. You could have anyone.”

Magnus frowned and cupped Alec’s face in his hands. “You, Alexander, are the most amazing person I have ever met. You risk your life for the sake of people you have never even met.” He said solemnly. Alec flushed, but Magnus wouldn’t let him look away yet. “There is _no one_ I would rather have with me, and you shouldn’t ever think that way.” 

Magnus noticed that Alec’s nose and cheeks were red from the midnight chill. He offered his hand and proposed, “Shall we rejoin the party and pick this up again later?”

Alec took his hand with a smile. It was a smile Magnus wouldn’t mind looking at for the rest of his life.      

-

Soon the party was winding down and Raphael found himself alone in the kitchen with Clary, of all people. He glanced around for the Lightwood she had been attached to earlier.

“She went to check on her brothers.” Clary said. Raphael nodded. They sat in silence for a minute.   

“Does he still sing all of the time?” Raphael asked unexpectedly.

Clary blinked and looked over at him. “Simon?”

Raphael nodded. “Shit used to drive me crazy. He would sing in the shower, while I was trying to sleep, in the car. But once he was gone I couldn’t stand how quiet it was in the apartment.”

It occurred to Clary for the first time that it might not only be Simon who was still in love and just refusing to say it.

“Then why break up with him?” She asked, bewildered.

Raphael glowered. “Because he lied to me. After that night with Camille, he came home with his face bruised and his phone and wallet gone and tried to tell me his face was from an allergic reaction and he had left his things at your house.”

Understandable, Clary thought, but said in Simon’s defense, “He didn’t want you to worry.”

Raphael just snorted in disgust and shook his head. “If he doesn’t trust me enough to even tell me when something happens, what’s the point?”

Clary gave him a long look and said, “You should talk to him about this, because I think Simon would trust you with his life.”

Raphael was shocked into silence by that bold statement. Clary just gave him a small smile and rose to her feet, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

-

Izzy found Alec brushing his teeth in the bathroom. She took one look at him, and the bruise on his neck, and said, “You know, I really like Magnus. I believe he could make you happy. But at the end of the day, don’t you take down criminals? A cat burglar definitely qualifies as a criminal.”

Alec seemed to think about that for a long moment, then spit his toothpaste in the sink. “To the police, _I’m_ considered a criminal. Magnus steals diamonds from rich people and swindles them at casinos. He hates people like the Circle, those who hurt people, and he does whatever he can to stop them. That’s more than enough for me.”

“Me too, then.” Izzy said. She smiled and reached up to poke at the hickey on Alec’s neck, teasing, “I see you had a fun night.” He batted her hand away and slapped his hand over the bruise, his face turning red.

“You know,” Alec said then, beginning to smirk. “I passed Clary on my way in here.”

“Oh my god, stop! Okay, truce.” Izzy said, covering her face with her hands. Then she jumped as if just realizing something and looked back up at Alec.

“Alec, did you see Jace earlier?” Alec gave her a quizzical look. “With the dominatrix in the leather suit?”

 _“What,”_ Alec said. Izzy began to laugh again.  

Jace was eventually rounded up and sent to an upstairs guest room without the leather-suited dominatrix. Magnus gave Clary and Izzy one guest room for the both of them without batting an eye and in exchange neither of them said anything when Alec was not given a guest room at all, but followed Magnus down the hall to his own bedroom.

Alec drifted off to sleep that night comfortably warm under Magnus’ ornate scarlet duvet, Magnus’ hair tickling his throat from where the man’s head was pressed comfortably into the crook of Alec’s neck. It was the most relaxed Alec had been able to feel since receiving the threat against Izzy and Jace.

Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was only the calm before the storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I could also call this chapter, "Everyone puts on their big kid pants and talks about their feelings."
> 
> To everyone who has been commenting and asking (very good) questions about Maryse&Robert, Hodge, and Valentine: All will be answered in time. Most of it in the next chapter, actually, with the way things are going. Thank you for all of your kind words!!
> 
> Oh, and if you want to come yell at me about Shadowhunters on tumblr my username is pinkygivingbrain.


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